A Darker Shade of Gold
by Khor Evik Vlakhavlakh
Summary: After his mother's death, the life of Jaune Soleil Arc takes a turn for the twisted darkness. How will an Arc shine, when he's made of darkness itself? A heart of gold under a layer of coldness: what will happen when he will have to fight for the ones he loves and protects? A journey through acceptance, redemption and maybe, just maybe, even love.
1. Prologue

**_This is an update of this chapter. It is basically identical to the first draft, but I added a paragraph. The main point is the AN._**

 ** _This is the prologue. It will influence heavily the rest of the story, but it has a different writing style too. It is mostly just for information. I just felt like the initial draft of Ch1 was not really good, and pushed people away from this story._**

 ** _Now, let me tell you, if you're new: this is not an OP!Jaune story. I hate those. He will be strong, but no stronger than many others. He will get stronger later on, but this power won't come freely. This is not a UnderPowered!Jaune story, either, though. His main strength will be in his physical stamina, and his ridiculous amount of Aura._**

 ** _Before you scoff and look away, thinking 'just another superJaune story', please consider at least what I just said. It is appalling how this story has less followers than Demonic Redemption, since this is both better and longer, but now that I think of it, maybe it's because this story's first chapter turns people away. So, I'm just telling you not to judge the story just by the first chapter._**

 ** _If I'm wrong and you still hate this story after reading the chapter, my bad._**

A nine-year-old Jaune Arc was sitting outside the door, waiting for his parents. His mother had just returned from a journey to Atlas she had to do for work, and his father John Arc had decided to, for once, drive her home instead of making her take a taxi.

Finally, his father's grey car arrived and parked in the usual parking lot in front of the house. The child smiled. One of the perks of living far away from any city or town was that they had their own parking lots, allowing them to invite many guests at the same time. From the car a tall man climbed out, with a slight resemblance to the child: apparently, the young Jaune Arc had taken more after his mother.

His father had black hair just as messy as his son's, and penetrant green eyes now obscured by stress and sorrow. He walked out of the car like a zombie, passing by the child without a word.

"Dad, where's Mom?", asked Jaune, following behind him. The man didn't answer. "Dad? Where's-".

The child was cut short as the man suddenly turned and slapped him hard across the face, sending him tumbling to the ground, tears of pain ready to drip form his eyes. "She's dead! She's nowhere!", he shouted at the terrified child. "The Bullhead _crashed!_ She's dead and she's not coming back! Ever!".

John Arc then stormed to his room, leaving a frightened child behind him and seven little girls peeking into the room from the stairs, curious as to why their dad had just lashed out like that. He never hit them. Not even to punish them for misbehaving.

Jaune Arc looked at them and dried his tears. Dad wasn't going to come out of his room for a good while, and given the mood he was in, that was probably for the best. But someone had to break the news to his sisters. They had the right to know.

John Arc stayed in his room for a week, eating what Jaune brought to his door every day. When he finally exited the room, he stank of alcohol and dirt. He exited the house without a word and took the car to drive to the town. The eight Arc siblings sighed in relief at that, and continued with their usual routines. Jaune Arc had to take over the role of both his parents since his mother was dead and his father refused to exit his room. Even if he was still mourning his mother, he couldn't let the family fall apart because of that. His mother wouldn't have wanted that. The Arcs were fairly wealthy, not rich but surely not poor. Apart from cleaning the house, cooking, and playing with his sisters, Jaune decided to try and cultivate the fields around his house, that were technically property of the Arc family, even if they had never been used.

But when their father returned, they had a very nasty surprise.

John Arc stumbled into the room, drunk like never before, and Jade Arc, one of the youngest girls at the age of five, actually made the mistake to try and greet him with a hug. The man, having drunk his brain away, replied by grabbing her hair and hurling her across the room to crash into Jane, seven years old. As everyone cowered, he growled and stormed over to the two terrified girls, but something put itself between him and the girls.

Something called Jaune Arc.

"Stop!", he shouted, trying to get the man to regain his mind. "Dad, please, stop! Pl-". He was cut off as the man backhandedly smacked him across the face, sending him to the ground. The young boy only had the time to shout "Run! Hide! Go!" to his sisters before a kick hit his ribs, robbing him of all his air.

His screams didn't last long, turning first into pained groans and gasps, and then into silence.

A few hours later, a heavily bruised Jaune was making dinner for everyone. His sisters were gathered around him, worried.

"Is dad angry at us?", asked Jean, Jane's twin sister.

"No, Jean, he isn't", smiled Jaune, or at least his lips stretched up. "He's just mourning Mom. Of all of us, he was the one who knew her for longer. One day he'll be back who he was, and he will still love us".

"Are you sure?", asked Jinn, five years old and third in the triplet Jade Jay Jinn.

Jaune lost his smile and looked down at the pasta he was cooking. "Set up the table", he said, shamelessly changing subject. "Dinner's almost ready".

Several years later, the situation hadn't changed.

Jaune, now thirteen, stood in the middle of the living room, a now nine-year-old Jade sleeping with her head on his lap. He was frowning at a piece of paper he was holding in his right hand, while in his left he held the monthly bill. All over his body, uncountable bruises and cuts littered his skin, courtesy of his father. While the man had never been able to touch one of the Arc daughters for years, Jaune had taken all the hits that would've gone to his sisters. He had never wavered, not even when the pain became too much to even scream. Every time, he only had to look at the sister he was standing in front of, protecting her from the hits, and his resolve would come back untouched. But the paper in front of him was beating him in a subtler, but no less brutal, way than his father.

"It's not enough", he finally stated, careful not to wake the girl up. She had had nightmares that night so it was only fair for him to let her sleep in the afternoon. And since none of his sisters was able to sleep without him, he had to be there too. Luckily, he had to do some counts, so it was fine. Unluckily, those counts had revealed him that the Arc family had been in constant loss of wealth ever since the death of his mother. That was understandable, but he had hoped to have a bit more time before their money ran dry. Apparently, his father spent on alcohol a lot more than he had imagined. He had hoped it to last at least three more years, thirty months actually, until he could work at a shop in the city. Give a hand in unloading the new stocks. But now? Every single shop owner in the town had told him they'd take him only at sixteen.

He'd have to improvise. He couldn't do it illegally, since even his previous deals with the shop owners was illegal. He'd have to do something even more illegal. Fortunately, he already knew what would be able to support the family enough for him to reach the age in which he would be able to work. Unfortunately, he knew he would hate that job, and he knew he would need to keep it a secret from his sisters. He just hoped nobody ever found out. There was only one thing that was worse than being the disgraced son of a drunken former Huntsman, who was rumoured to have an ongoing incestuous relationship, a false rumour by the way, with all his sisters? Exactly what he was going to do.

Selling themselves for money.

And so he did.

Now, he did not become a straight-out prostitute, but he offered himself for any kind of jobs, from moving things to splitting wood. Of course, though, the best-paying jobs were the sexual-related ones, and they usually became regular after a while.

Some say that, with time, you get used to it and it becomes less horrid of a job, but for Jaune it didn't. He took every sort of customers, from the sadists to the extremely normal, earning just enough money to sustain the family. And even after almost three years of basically continuous slavery, he couldn't help but feel disgusted by his customers every time.

It never got less horrid. He just got used to it.

His sisters never found out, thankfully. He wouldn't have been able to withstand their shocked and disgusted expressions. But thanks to his efforts, his sisters had grown into intelligent and beautiful girls. His younger sister Jane, now fifteen, looked like an authentic angel. His little Arc Angel, he called her.

But, just like all things, even that period of relative peace ended.

It ended with his father finding out about his less-than-respectable job, and insulting him in front of everyone in the town square. The town citizens, who feigned innocence as they threw insults at him, were vicious in their harsh judgement. But worst of all in front of his sisters, who were shocked by the news, even more so when the truth was forced out of him, letting them know he had been prostituting himself for the last three years.

But, instead of hating him and being disgusted by him like he'd expected, they dragged him away and made him swear he wouldn't sell himself ever again. He had promised not to, unless in a dire situation. It had been the best they had gotten out of him. Left without prostitution to earn money, he turned to even shadier deals.

After all, illegal deals are way more profitable than legal ones.

He had never promised not to subject himself to scientific experiments. So he used those to earn the necessary money. His father was even drunker than usual, and someone needed to earn some money. If the legal world was giving him the cold shoulder for what he had done in his desperation, he would turn to the illegal world. He contacted a famous criminal in Vale, a certain Roman Torchwick, with the false name Archangel, to get in contact with a few scientists who needed subjects for their riskier experiments.

Somehow, by sheer willpower, great stamina or pure luck, he managed to survive six months of beatings from his father, who even while drunk was still a Huntsman, and dangerous scientific experiments by mad scientists. But every sun will, one day, be clouded over.

It only took him one particularly twisted experiment by a doctor called Arthur Watts.

The experiment had been a failure. The Grimm essence infusion Doctor Watts had injected him had hurt like hell and, for the first time in five years, he had screamed in agony, every nerve in his body set aflame by the monstrous substance as his organism tried to get rid of that poison. Watts had injected vial after vial to make sure his body couldn't fight it off, but even then the experiment failed.

He was still utterly human.

Watts had refused to pay him and instead had kicked him out, revealing himself to be a Huntsman. When Jaune had returned home, he was exhausted, and had made the mistake to fall asleep before John did. In his defence, it was more correct to say he lost consciousness as soon as his body touched the couch. He woke up to a sound he hadn't heard in seven years. He woke up to the terrified silence occasionally broken by sobs only heard when John beat one of his sisters.

His sisters were in danger.

He jumped to his feet and ran into the living room, from where the sobs came. There, all his sisters were gathered around a figure on the ground, in the middle of a small pool of blood.

His blood froze.

He dashed to the figure. It was Jinn. The smallest, most innocent, most defenceless of them all. He touched her cheek. She was cold. Terrified, he pressed a hand to her chest and one to her neck, searching for a pulse. He sighed in relief when he found one, weak but steady. His relief slowly but steadily turned into rage. He picked her up and brought her to the bathroom, washing the blood away and checking her wounds. With a little luck, she would be okay. Also, she didn't seem to have suffered internal haemorrhage nor mental trauma. He brought her to their room and told them all to stay there no matter what. Even if they heard screams.

Then he exited the room to face the man who had beaten an innocent twelve-year-old little girl to an inch of her life.

John Arc was, as usual, drinking his brain away in his room, when the door was kicked out of its hinges to reveal Jaune Arc on the threshold.

Only that he wasn't Jaune Arc any more.

His skin was now ghostly white, his eyes red like blood and his hair whiter than snow. His hands now had sharp claws, and his mouth was split into a monstrous snarl, revealing rows of deadly fangs. He looked not dissimilar to the vampires in the tales. In his right hand, he was gripping Crocea Mors, the family blade. The sword that never failed to protect the Arcs and slay whoever or whatever was threatening them. And now it was time for it to protect.

John Arc barely had time to stand up before the sword went straight through his neck, silencing his scream. Then Jaune flicked his sword and beheaded the man. Many would've stopped there, having killed the man, but he wasn't many. He would pay him back for the eight years he had made him live. And then for the eight years of hell he had made his sister live. He had sixty-four years of misery to answer to.

Mercilessly, he continued hacking at the body, screaming in mindless fury, until of John Arc only a puddle of blood and hacked pieces remained.

Jaune then grabbed a spare shirt of John's and cleaned the sword before calling his sisters in the living room. There he told them his plan.

He would find them an apartment in Vale. He would find a way to get into Beacon. He knew Beacon could pay students with familiar problems to help them out. Also, so he wouldn't need to find another place for him to live in.

They left their house and their town the following day, never looking back.


	2. The Thief, the Grimm and the Rose

**_Hey guys, here I am again! You might have noticed that I changed my username from Khorevis into Khor Evik Vlakhavlakh. Yep, I did, and I did it on purpose. There's a reason and let's leave it at that._**

 ** _Sorry for making you all wait, but you know how life is... there's always a story that needs to be written! I was actually writing An Extension of the Soul Ch2 (a light-hearted fic), and then I instead wrote this chapter (for one of my darkest fic yet...). Sooo... what can I say? Enjoy this new chapter of DSoG!_**

When the noise of shattering glass rang out, Jaune could only sigh.

He had hoped that a walk in Vale late in the evening would've brought him a little bit of peace. Instead, he watched with little to no interest as a man in a black suit was kicked out of a little Dust shop… through the window. His attacker, a red-and-black themed girl, landed gracefully on the street while the man crashed to the ground. With a series of fluid movements, the girl took something from her back and deployed it into a similarly-themed giant freaking scythe. Jaune actually felt his eyes widen at that, and there were very few things that could surprise him after everything he'd been through.

"Okay…" He froze. He knew that voice. "Get her!"

Turning toward the broken window, he allowed a miniscule smile to reach his face. Roman Torchwick had just walked into the picture, or rather out of the shop, his trusty cane with him and a cigar hanging from his mouth. Just the man he was looking for.

Roman was a very tall man, even taller than Jaune himself, with cured bright orange hair, whose bangs covered part of his right eye. He wore mascara and eyeliner to highlight his green eyes, and atop his head rested a black bowler hat with a red stripe, and a feather on its side. The criminal mastermind wore a black shirt under a white trechcoat with red inlay. Around his neck a grey scarf was tied loosely, covering his neck. The look was completed by his black trousers and brown shoes.

With him there were three other men in black suits, black hats and red sunglasses. Two of them carried wide red swords, while the other two -counting the one that was getting up from the ground- had grey Dust guns.

"Stop."

Everyone turned to him as he spoke, his voice firm and, to be frank, completely unafraid. His Aura wasn't full, but he had still more than enough to endure whatever Dust rounds they could throw at him. What he couldn't endure, though, was to allow Roman to slip from his fingers. Finding him during a robbery wasn't exactly how he had imagined their meeting would go, but it was better than not meeting him at all.

He ignored the weapons pointed at him by Torchwick's goons and looked straight at the thief. On his face there was a frown, and Jaune knew fully well why. He was trying to remember where he had already heard his voice, and Jaune knew the answer. Ignoring the goons and the girl, the latter of which was now staring at him, both worrying about his safety and curious about his appearance.

At the moment, Jaune knew he didn't exactly look stylish. His faded blue jeans had been worn until they had fallen apart, and had then been stitched back together. Web-like lines criss-crossed the cloth, indicating just how many times it had been sewn back together. He also wore old sneakers and a plain worn-out black hoodie that left his arms open. Almost all the exposed skin was littered with bruises, small cuts or tears, and old scars, so many of them that it looked unreal. The most unsettling scar was one on his cheek, from a punch that had torn his skin when he was eleven, the irregular line connecting to the right corner of his mouth. His blond hair hadn't been cut in ages, now reaching down down his back and unkempt. All in all, he looked far too beaten up to be just a pauper, but also far too ill-dressed to be anything but poor.

"Another kid?" sneered the criminal, taking the cigar out of his mouth to speak freely. "Don't you have anything else to do, Blondie? We're kind of in the middle of something here."

"You'd think you would remember me, after everything I've been through thanks to your contacts," commented Jaune, passing a hand through his hair to push it back from his eyes. Roman's eyes narrowed, and Jaune was sure that now the criminal was wondering about his identity. "Let me introduce myself. When I contacted you, I used the alias `Archangel`. Sounds familiar?"

Roman's eyes widened for a second before his frown turned into a grin, and he laughed. "That's where I've heard you before! Man, it was really nagging at me not knowing your identity." His laughter was cut short as he turned to face his goons and jerked his head toward the girl in red and black. "He's one of my contacts. Get the girl out of here."

The four goons nodded and charged the girl who, obviously being a Huntress in training, skillfully dodged their attacks and kicked them off, deciding not to use the deadly blade of her scythe. Two of the goons were quickly dispatched by two flying kicks, while the third received the blunt end of the scythe into his stomach, knocking him out.

The last one was about to shoot the girl, but he stopped when a strong hand lifted him from the ground. Looking down he saw the dishevelled blond, supposedly one of Roman's contacts, effortlessly holding him up with his right hand while the other was pulled back and closed into a fist. The thug could only grunt in pain as the fist connected with his face, sending him flying.

The blond turned to Torchwick. "Didn't know you were a murderer in addition to a thief," he grumbled.

"Hey, I would've been fine!" exclaimed the girl.

"Better not take any chance," replied Jaune, turning to Torchwick, only to find the end of his cane pointed right at his head. "What the hell, Roman? I come all the way here for a favour and you threaten me before even offering a greeting?"

"Well, you just interfered with my operation, Archangel, and you know I don't allow anyone to disrupt my operations. I will deal with Red later. But, if a greeting is what you want…" The end of the cane opened, revealing a barrel. "Hello, Archangel, and goodbye."

The girl in red tried to act, but the shot was fired before anyone could do anything, point-blank and aimed to the head. With a remorseful sigh, Roman lowered his cane, but as soon as the red smoke from the explosion cleared, the blond was revealed still standing, without even a singed strand of hair. "What the-"

"That was not nice, Roman, but since I need your services… and frankly I don't think I can beat you… I'll let that pass." The boy offered a hand. "As bad as that stuff was, it helped me with money and you helped me find the scientists. I need another miracle like that. Two, actually."

"Well, in case you haven't noticed, I'm kind of in the middle of something here," retorted Roman, aiming his cane at the girl. Jaune narrowed his eyes and, thinking quickly, reached out to cover the barrel with his own hand. Too late to stop the bullet from being fired, but not too late to stop it from reaching the girl, who couldn't be any older than sixteen.

His action had the double effect of shielding the girl and saving him the trouble of fighting Torchwick. The explosive bullet burst against his hand, creating a second cloud of red smoke, but the force of the hit was enough to send Roman flying. The thief's cane still in his hand, Jaune flipped it to hold it by the handle and aimed it at Torchwick. That had been a lucky shot, literally, and he knew it. Even unarmed, Roman was stronger than him. Or at least he guessed he was, since he had never seen him fight.

"The police's gonna be here soon, Roman, let's get out of here, we need to talk." The thief narrowed his eyes but held his hands up in apparent submission. "And you should hit the road too," he added, briefly turning to cast a glance to the girl behind him. "Better not to get caught by the police in the middle of a robbery."

"I won't let you escape!" she exclaimed in answer, holding up her scythe. "I don't know how much Aura you still have left, but it can't be much. I'm not gonna let you criminals just walk away!"

Jaune shrugged and gestured to Roman to start walking. "Not my problem. You can follow us if you want, I'm not gonna stop you."

That caught both the girl and the thief by surprise. She actually lowered her weapon. "I-I can?"

He stopped and glanced her over. She didn't look like a full-fledged Huntress, so Roman could probably defeat her -hopefully not kill- in case things got out of hand. Plus he really doubted he would be able to defeat her in a fight and allowing her to follow them was the only other option.

She was really short, basically a full head shorter than Jaune himself, with red-tipped dark crimson hair and large silver eyes… his eyes widened as he recalled someone with identical hair and eyes. She couldn't be Summer, though, she was too young and her weapons was a scythe… and probably some kind of firearm too.

He took a second to take her in. She was black combat boots and black stockings. She also wore a black corset with a matching skirt. The upper layer of the skirt was black, but multiple red layers could be seen underneath the first. She also had a long red cape attached to the corset. A black belt with a steel rose as buckle confirmed his suspicions. She appeared to be Summer, down to the last detail. She was basically identical to her, just a little shorter, obviously less developed physically, and with shorter hair.

"Summer?" he asked before he could stop himself.

From the way her eyes widened and hurt showed through, he guessed that she wasn't. Probably Summer was her mother, though, the resemblance was too much to be a mere coincidence. Plus, from what he could remember, Summer had mentioned living in Vale. She hadn't talked much about herself but a few sentences here and there while she helped him had slipped. The hurt, though, was something unexpected. She looked like Summer was dead, but that was impossible.

"Y-You know her?" she asked faintly, her already pale complexion losing even more colour.

"I'm searching for her," he replied, gesturing to an alley. "That's miracle number two. Wanna come along, now? The cops are gonna be here real soon."

She merely continued to stare at him even as the sirens blared closer. "I…"

"We have no time, you coming or not?" called Roman from the alley. His hands were no more raised, and he looked supremely annoyed, but that was can of worm he would open later.

"B-But she's dead…"

"She's not," stated Jaune. "My Semblance. I can feel she's still alive, that's why I need to find her. You coming or not?"

She stood still for ten more agonizingly slow seconds before finally nodding and jogging up to them.

"Nice to meet you," he offered her a hand to shake. "What's your name?"

She awkwardly took it. "Ruby…"

"Good. You can call me Jaune" He nodded at her once before resuming to walk away from the crime scene. With a little luck the cops would first arrest the four goons and only then ask themselves where Torchwick had ended up. "Roman, I really hope you have a hideout or something nearby, because we can't walk around like this for long."

The thief growled something in response. "Well, in case you haven't noticed, you just blew up my little operation. My boss is gonna want my head for that. Why should I _also_ usher you into one of my hideouts?"

"I know where we could go!" exclaimed Ruby, her young features set in determination. "There's an abandoned storehouse nearby, no one's ever bought that in years. If they come searching they'll search there, but at least you two will get the privacy you need."

"That's a terrible idea," commented Roman. "But since it's not something that could cost me more than what you two already costed me, fine. Let's play nice and go to Red's little storehouse."

"We won't need it for long, we can go there," nodded Jaune. "Besides, if everything goes fine the three of us won't see each other again in the near future. Ruby, lead the way."

Behind them, the sirens blared even closer, but the three disappeared in the darkness.

Roman was definitely annoyed. Archangel, or Jaune as he had introduced himself to Red, had just disrupted his robbery. He still didn't know how he took two point-blank shots from Melodic Cudgel without basically even flinching, but he knew that hadn't he been so resistant, he would've been dead. Aura or no Aura, there had to be a limit to how much damage could the boy absorb before his defences broke, and as sure as Dust Roman Torchwick would be ready to exploit that moment when it came. Cinder would be enraged, but after all, angry and smug were the only two states he'd ever seen her in. It was infuriating to work under her, but she'd made it more than clear that she could kill him in less than a minute.

Jaune, for one, was both annoyed and worried. He knew his sisters were okay and he knew that, if he managed to get what he wanted from Roman, they would be okay in the future too. But he didn't like the thought of leaving them alone, even if he had to search for Summer. He was also annoyed because he knew it would be hard to convince the thief to cooperate. He wasn't a real fighter but Jaune was sure that, if he really wanted to, Roman could recruit a dozen of assassins just to take him out. As long as he had him in his sight, and preferably with a gun pointed at the crook's head, he was comfortable with negotiating. But as soon as Roman was free again… he'd rather not think about it.

Ruby was another matter altogether. She was indeed curious about the blond guy who had apparently just stopped a robbery, and was apparently an associate of Torchwick's, but curiosity wasn't what she was feeling most. No, she was mostly feeling hurt and sadness. Being reminded of her mother's death was something that still caused her pain, even if years had passed. She didn't remember much of her mother, just a few pictures she'd been shown, but that didn't mean she didn't feel the pain for her absence. And if the blond boy knew something about her mother that she didn't, then she was ready to break a law or two to hear him out. She would still arrest Torchwick later, but only after she got her answers.

Finally, they reached the storehouse Ruby mentioned. Deteriorated and littered with rubbish and scraps, it really looked like it hadn't been used in years. Roman entered without any problem, but Ruby stilled for a second. She knew that entering would basically mean associating herself with Torchwick and his blond colleague. Did she want that?

"Don't you want to know where your mother is, Ruby?" Jaune asked from the entrance. "Well, in here you might get some."

Ruby took a deep breath… and then broke the law, following the criminal and his associate.

 ** _Wow, you must be saying: "Already deviating from canon, Khor?". And my answer is "Yep! I was kinda tired of always having all my fics follow the canon storyline, so I changed it. And yes, Ruby did just follow Torchwick and an unknown guy into an abandoned storehouse."_**

 ** _Anyway, thanks to all the people who've faithfully waited for this. I just re-entered DSoG into my poll and I'm sorry for just disappearing for a while. But now! Shoutout to the user Burdman for having helped me define this story. For all of you who read this, I'm not unreachable, so if you want to chat or to offer story ideas, or support, just PM me! I can't say I will take up all your offer (especially given all the fics I'm trying to write at once... I'm not Coeur, guys, eheh), but I'm always happy to chat a little._**

 ** _Until next time,_**

 ** _Khor Evik Vlakhavlakh_**


	3. A Talk Between Enemies

**_Here I am again! This chapter came pretty naturally, so it didn't take much. Still had to finish ViewingTES's chapter, though. So... I know I left you all hanging, so I tried to minimize the wait. Hope you don't hate me for this... and even if you do, if you're reading this, then you've probably forgiven me already._**

 ** _And now, onto the chapter!_**

The warehouse they had just entered looked, to be honest, decrepit.

The dull grey walls had patches where the paint had worn off, revealing the just as dull brickwork underneath. The floor was littered with junk and abandoned scraps and crates filled with Oum only knew what. Everything was filthy and coated in a thick layer of dust, painting the whole storehouse a brownish shade of grey. Old and cracked windows were the only source of light in the room, since the power had been gone for a long time, and the lights hadn't even flickered when turned on, instead stubbornly remaining unlit. The silence was broken only by their hesitant footsteps.

The three of them walked into the room with caution, carefully avoiding the sharp shards of glass on the floor from the broken windows, and slowly made their way to corner farthest from the entrance, partially shrouded in darkness. Ruby climbed on top of a crate and allowed her legs to swing freely, her scythe still deployed but this time only halfway. Jaune had the sinking suspicion that the hole at the end of that shaft was the gun she'd used earlier. Roman himself stood upright, not wanting to dirty his clothes any further by sitting down or leaning against a wall, and Jaune himself followed his actions, even though his reason was more of having to keep Roman under aim than keeping his already worn clothes from getting even more filthy.

The instant they stopped moving, a tense silence filled the room.

Green, blue and silver met wordlessly, until blue closed and a sigh was heard. "Well, here goes nothing," he murmured to himself. "I'm guessing none of you know why I wanted to talk with Roman. And I'm guessing that you both would like some answers."

Two redheads nodded in agreement.

"As I said, I need two miracles from him." The boy turned to the man with a scrutinizing gaze. "I'm sure you can pull one off. The other… well, here's hoping you can."

"Miracles of what kind?" slowly replied the thief, still eyeing his cane – said cane still in the hands of the blond boy. "Thefts? Bank robberies? Assassinations? What kind of job are you asking for?"

"None of the above, the second might not even be illegal." Jaune kept his newfound weapon aimed at the criminal while the other hand went through his hair. "But the first one is. I want transcripts. Fake transcripts for Signal Academy. And I want seven of them."

There was another beat of silence in which the girl's silver eyes focused on him. Then Torchwick barked out a laugh. "Seven transcripts for Signal? That's child's play, but I fail to see why would you need seven of them."

"I need my sisters to be somewhere safes until I come back from my search, and a school that trains people to fight sounds like a place they would be safe and maybe even learn how to defend themselves," explained the boy. "I can't leave them alone, but I need to find Summer. She might even help us." He stopped as he glanced at Ruby. Her eyes still showed the hurt at hearing Summer's name, but there was something else. Something he was too used to receive all thorough his childhood.

Doubt and suspiciousness.

Jaune had expected such a response from the girl. She didn't know what he had gone through and even if she had, he doubted she would understand. Most had given him pity and walked away. Many had given him inclemency and harshness. Only two had ever helped him. One had been Summer, and that was why he needed to find her, and fast.

Roman, instead, responded in a way he hadn't anticipated. He snorted and shook his head. "Kids these days, they want to be criminals without even knowing how to lie." He looked back at him. "So, Blondie, I can give you those transcripts. For a price, of course. What about the second miracle?"

Jaune closed his eyes. _'Don't panic,'_ he told himself. _'The price is gonna be incredibly high but it's worth it._ _ **They**_ _are worth it.'_ He looked back at Roman and nodded. "The other is information. Where can I find Summer Rose?"

If the thief saw Ruby stiffening, he hid it well. Jaune, on the other hand, turned to her and put a hand on her shoulder, disregarding the rifle still pointed at him. "Don't worry, Ruby, I'm gonna find her, and I'm gonna bring her back."

"How do you even know if she's alive or not?" murmured the girl, looking down. Roman almost rolled his eyes at the obvious rookie mistake of taking her eyes off the enemy, but he wisely kept his opinion for himself.

"It's part of my Semblance," he replied shortly. "I might explain it later but not now. Roman, can you find any information?"

The crook smiled like a shark. "Blondie, of course I can." He adjusted his hat on his head. "But, as usual, there will be a price to this."

Jaune tightened his grip on the cane before his shoulders dropped slightly, and he sighed defeatedly. "Name your prices, for both the works," he told him. "It's not like I have any other way…"

"For the transcripts, I'll have to think about it, because you see… you have nothing that I don't already have, nor can you give me anything I need. So that makes the price a bit difficult to decide…" He suddenly lost his smirk and crossed his arms. "As for the information, I ask back information. You have to answer my questions, _truthfully_ , and I'll see what I can do for this Summer search. After all, information is the most valuable merchandise around."

Jaune and Ruby alike blinked at the highly unusual price, but yet again they weren't criminal masterminds. Information _was_ indeed one of the most expensive merchandise to get. People would kill for so much less. But since he didn't know anything of that, and since he didn't see any danger in answering a few questions, he just nodded.

"Fine by me. Although you'll excuse me if I choose to keep a few things for myself." For example his father's murder. Roman might not care but he didn't want Ruby to start shooting. He'd hate to have to fire back. "Ask."

The thief's smirk could not get any wider at this point. "Question number one, why are you asking me to give you transcripts for your sisters? I mean, are you doing this against your parents' wishes?" That would be prime material. Especially to later blackmail the boy by threatening to tell his parents. With a bit of luck, he would answer truthfully.

"No, both my parents are dead," he replied dully, making Ruby gasp and causing Roman's eyes to widen. "I've been taking care of my sisters since I was seven. I'm all they have and so I have to protect them. Since I can't bring them with me when searching for Summer, I need to have them somewhere safe."

The crook stared at him, searching for any lie, but he couldn't find any. Either the kid was an exceptional liar, or he was telling the truth. He hadn't known him for very long, but he didn't seem like a good liar, so it was probably the second. He was also mildly interested in how Ruby was subconsciously lowering her rifle. The man started into the boy's blue eyes before nodding and accepting the answer. "Okay, second question. Why are you searching for this Summer?" He was already thinking on how he could bring that Summer woman on his side to have her control the kid. Naive or not, he had a hell of an Aura reserve. "Who is her to you?"

"Summer is one of the two people who ever helped me in the last ten years," was the plain reply. The blond looked out of a broken window for a second and sighed. "She was the one to unlock my Aura eight years ago, and I subconsciously marked her with my Semblance. That's how I know she's still alive. She offered me to adopt me, but I had to take care of my sisters, and she couldn't adopt all eight of us."

Ruby smiled a little through misty eyes. Hearing about Summer was painful, but it also gave her a small feeling of warmth in her chest. Roman was much less impressed. "Who was the other person?" he continued.

"A bull Faunus I met when I was eight, a year before I met Summer. I was being beaten by older boys for fun, just as the weak is always preyed upon by the strong." His free hand tightened into a fist before relaxing. "He came up and beat them all. He fought brutally but he protected me. When I asked him why he did that, he said that he knew what it was like to be beaten for amusement. We had a long talk and… I won't say we became friends, but I like to think both of us walked away wiser from that meeting. His name was Adam Taurus."

Roman gave a long whistle. That was exceptional information. "Adam Taurus? As in the former leader of the Valean branch of the White Fang?" he asked. "The man who's recently disappeared as a new leader took over? Blondie, you have quite the connection here…"

"I don't care about power nor influence. He defended me, and that's what is important." Jaune ran a hand through his hair. "Do you have any more questions?"

"Two more, actually," grinned the thief. The boy had turned out to be incredibly precious. Sure, the first two questions had kind of been useless, but a connection to Adam Taurus was nothing to turn his nose up at. "One is your Semblance. You mentioned it a couple of times. What is it?"

Jaune shrugged, not really bothering to keep it a secret. "I call it Soulbond. As far as I know, it has two functionalities. I can Mark people or Soulmark them, both being different types of mark." He mumbled something under his breath, trying to decide how to describe his Semblance's effects. "For Marked people, I can _consciously_ decide to transfer any damage from them to me, basically lending them my Aura to protect them. But it has to be done consciously. For Soulmarked people, they are protected at all times, never stopping until I run out of Aura. Thankfully, I have quite a lot of it."

"I've seen…" Well, that had at least explained the boy's insane reaction to his shots. Though Roman had to admit that, in a world full of Semblances only apt for offence, seeing such a defensive, and such a _selfless_ Semblance was surprising. Unfortunately, he wasn't the type of person to just aid a knight when they saw one. If anything, he would take advantage of him. "Last question. I know I gave you contacts for a few experiments. What did they do?"

Jaune went rigid. "I'd… rather not talk about it. Let's just say they weren't pleasant, especially the last," he replied, hands tightening at the memory of the scientist's sadistic assistant. "Those aren't my fondest memories."

Ruby looked at him with what appeared to be worry in her eyes, but Roman was implacable. "This was the last question. Either you answer, or I won't help you find your Summer girl."

Jaune narrowed his eyes and stared up at the man, who glared back unwaveringly. The fierce and tense stand-off lasted only a couple of seconds before Jaune closed his eyes and sighed. "If I answer truthfully, do you _swear_ you won't tell anyone, and you will give me the information I need?"

Roman didn't smile at his relenting. He thought about it for a second before nodding. "I cannot promise you I will find what you are searching for, but I'll do my best. My best is usually enough." His smirk returned in a second. "So, what did they do?"

The boy glared at him before he flipped the cane and offered it to Ruby by the handle. "The first ones, nothing. The last one…" As soon as the girl took hold of the cane, Jaune stepped back from them. "The last one was directed by a man called Arthur Watts, and executed by a monster by the name of Edward Ampere. He took pleasure in hurting others in the most horrible way he could imagine. And after they were done…" He took off his shirt.

Ruby gasped in shock. Deep down, Roman felt pity swell up in his chest. The kid looked like he had been on the verge of starvation for _years_ , each rib clearly visible and straining against the skin. Numerous scars and old bruises, too many to count, littered his body. Given his enormous reserves of Aura, they could only imagine just how many hits he had received. He looked like he had been put through a shredded and a press at the same time. Yet he stood without needing help.

"They had turned me into a monster."

His skin, already incredibly pale, began to lose even more colour, reaching a pearly white Roman had never seen on a person. His eyes were closed, but his long hair's roots turned white as well, the discolouration quickly travelling up the strands until all his wild man was snowy white, paler than a Schnee's. Claws grow from his fingers, each of them sharper than a sword, but not long enough to prevent him from closing his hands or holding things. What appeared to be runes on his chest were glowing slightly, as if lit by an inner fire. When he spoke again, both redheads could see that his teeth had turned into deadly fangs. "They injected Grimm essence into my body and waited for it to manifest. And when it didn't, they kicked me out with Grimm essence running through my veins and no money in my pockets."

Ruby had already begun to shake at his appearance, but when he opened his eyes, the trembling intensified. Even Roman flinched. Instead of pupil, iris and sclera, his eyes were completely glowing red, the colour even more noticeable in the darkness. But unlike a Grimm's, his eyes weren't full of hatred and killer intent. Instead, they were just glowing dully.

Jaune sighed again as colour returned to his eyes, hair and skin, claws and fangs returning to nails and teeth. He wore the shirt back on and turned to them. "I gave my answers, Roman. Now it's your turn to do your miracles. I'll give you a week. We'll return here, at this hour, in seven days. Ruby, you can arrest him after he's found some information."

 ** _Just a little heads-up: next chapter won't take on from here. It will have a timeskip to next week._**

 ** _I hope you liked this chapter! We get to know a little about Jaune's past, although not much. And now both Roman and Ruby have seen his transformation. You might think it's too sudden but think: Roman made it sound like Jaune had no other choice. Either he told his secret, or Roman wouldn't get him the information he needs. And for Summer, he's ready to reveal himself. Besides, while he's mature he's also naive. He doesn't realize just how much his actions could impact on himself in the future._**

 ** _Until next time,_**

 ** _Khor Evik Vlakhavlakh._**


	4. Mark

**_And I'm back on A Darker Shade of Gold! I guess you all wanted to know how this was going to play out... well, here it is!_**

The warehouse didn't look any less run-down the second time they gathered there, just a little more familiar.

Jaune had been almost expecting Ruby to have called the police, but instead the girl had just walked in cautiously and with exaggerated stealth before sitting down on the same crate she had sat down upon last time. The girl still had her scythe/rifle thing deployed, but she seemed to be waiting for them to speak.

Roman, instead, seemed to be just annoyed by the dust on the crates, carefully wiping it off with a handkerchief before sitting down. He had gotten his cane back, of course, but luckily he didn't seem about to attack, so that was a plus for Jaune. Honestly, he hadn't thought he would've been able to nail it like that.

The boy himself was dressed exactly in the same clothes as a week earlier, but this time he had Crocea Mors with him. Both sword and shield had been painted dark blue to avoid Roman to recognize the Arc symbol, especially since the news of his father's death were still pretty fresh, but the weapon was safely attached to his belt, even if he did not know how to use it. But after all, it was just precaution. In case he really had to fight, he would use his superior Grimm strength, not skill.

"So," he began, breaking the eerie silence that had settled upon them. "Is it safe to assume you have the information I need, Roman?"

The thief didn't speak for a second, merely smoking his cigar with an angry expression on his face. Finally, he roughly took it out of his mouth and spat to the side, something very uncommon for the fashionable thief. "More or less," he grumbled. "Apparently they can ask questions but I can't. And by the way, kid, it was a pain in the ass to explain my delay last week to my boss. I have _some_ news."

"Roman…" Jaune commenced, but the crook waved him aside.

"I know, you paid and I can't complete the service, it's bugging me as well. I may be a thief and a criminal but I do pride myself to be efficient. This is a stain on my record." He paused to inhale a bit of smoke before puffing it out. "The transcripts are going to be free, payback for my failure. Seven of them, all for Signal Academy. Hope they enjoy their stay." He offered him a bunch of folded papers and Jaune took it, with Ruby's eyes following the envelope from hand to hand.

"What about Summer?" he asked tensely. "Have you found _something?_ "

"Not as much as I wished," grumbled the mastermind. "And it's not even _my_ fault. I searched and asked my informants, who asked their informants and so on, but people of power apparently don't want me finding out. I've had to deal with several assassinated informants this week."

"Roman, cut to the chase," growled the boy. " _What_ can you tell me?"

"Nothing much, I just know she's probably alive." That earned a snort from the blonde and a stiffening in Ruby's frame. "But I believe Dr Watts might know something about her. The assassin I managed to capture involuntarily let his name slip, so I do have a lead. But it's gonna take so much more time…"

"We don't have time, Summer's not fine," Jaune snapped in irritation. He pinched the bridge of his nose and exhaled, pushing his anger out with his breath. "Okay. That's at least something. I suppose you can't tell me anything about Watts?" The thief shook his head. "That's not good. I'll have to search all over the place for him. I know one of his labs but he'll surely have others, so the chance of actually finding him is pretty slim, but it's the only way I have now."

"Look, I can try to look into it if you're still okay with paying, but…"

"No, Roman, that's not necessary. I doubt you would be able to find anything, either." Jaune sighed and ran a hand through his long hair. "Although this doesn't make my search any easier…"

"Why are you looking for this Summer, anyway?" asked the thief. "She helped you… once, almost ten years ago. People change in a decade, I'm pretty sure you know that. She might not be the woman you remember."

He laughed bitterly. "People can change in a day," he replied, remembering his distant childhood. "But no, I'm not searching for her because of that. My reason is a far more… practical one. I accidentally Soulmarked her when she unlocked my Aura, and for years I've been feeling constant damage to my Aura because of my connection to her. I cannot allow this to continue, it always drags my Aura down. And if I can also save her while getting rid of the problem, then it's even better."

"So you just want to erase the connection?" asked Ruby, hands tightening. "Do you even care about her?"

"Not any more than I care for other people," he replied with a shrug. "I may have owed her once but that's different. Besides, I've more than paid her back with all the damage I've taken for her. So yeah, it's mostly just to erase the connection."

Ruby's expression darkened but she stayed silent. Roman took off from there. "Well, kid, I've done everything I could so now, if you would…"

"You're not done here yet, Torchwick," growled the boy. "You were the one to give me Watts's contact, do you know where I could find him? Or where his labs might be? I know the location of one of them, but that's just one, and it was a pretty small one too."

"I know no more than you do, kid, don't ask me." The thief puffed out more smoke. "But I might be able to do something more… if you are ready to work for me, that is."

"That depends on the service," Jaune replied, ignoring the shocked and outraged expression on Ruby's face. "I'm not exactly good at stealth or stealing. And I'm not completely efficient at cold-blooded murder."

"It wouldn't be any of these, dear `Archangel`," grinned the thief. "Apparently you can erase connections, right? Otherwise you wouldn't be searching for this Summer. So I am asking for a temporary connection to save my skin."

Jaune's eyes narrowed and he crossed his arms. "That depends. Why would you need it? Answer or you won't get anything."

"Not really diplomatic, are you? No matter, not like I have to keep it a secret," grumbled Roman, chewing on his cigar. "Let's just say that my boss is starting to be too arrogant, informing me too little, making me take too many risks, and bossing me around too much. But since if I try to betray her she'll just kill me, I need an extra Aura boost to tank in some hits. Just for a few days, no more."

"I need to touch the person to erase the connection, what if you don't show up?" Jaune growled angrily, already not liking the plan. "And don't give me your `thief's honour` thing, I wouldn't accept that."

"Do you need it to be fresh or alive?" Roman cleared his throat. "I mean, if I give you a few drops of my blood now, could you still erase the connection? Or do you need to really touch me?"

"Second one," mumbled the boy.

"Dammit," cursed the thief. "I don't know what to tell you, kid, you just have to trust me."

"I have another idea, if you are up to it," Jaune smiled eerily, and Torchwick found himself leaning back. "You first give me the information you can find, then I Mark you. When you need the protection I'll activate the Mark until you send me a message to tell me to stop. And then you come with me to help me find Summer or Watts, whoever comes first."

"I'm okay with the first part, but I fear we disagree on the second," deadpanned Torchwick. "Why should I follow you?"

"It's simple, really. You need to get away from your boss as you said, but she probably has ways to track you down if you remain in the criminal world," he pointed out with a shark-like smile. "If you come with me you won't just have the protection of a human/Grimm shield, but you'll also stay under the radar, so to speak. I know it's not optimal for you but it's not like you have many options, if you want my Mark."

"Isn't the information enough?" asked Roman. "My boss is starting to get suspicious about my searches, you know? She requires me to be a mere puppet who does _only_ what she wants. She's a bitch like that. I cannot keep this up much longer, I'm not a free criminal any more."

"Change of deal, I Mark you now, you find the information and tell me, and in case she attacks you you send me a message and I raise the protection," offered Jaune, crossing his arms as his smirk disappeared. "Then you come with me. A trained Huntsman might be useful. I don't trust you and you don't trust me, if we don't both give in a little we'll never get anywhere."

"Do you realize I'm still here?" asked Ruby. Both ignored her.

"What tells me you will indeed activate the Mark instead of just leaving me to die once you've gotten your information?" inquired Roman.

"Because I still need you to come along," countered Jaune. "But fine! Since the masterthief apparently can't even be diplomatic I'll have to give in! You get me the information but you can tell me _after_ I used the Mark!"

"You mean…"

"I mean I Mark you now, then you get my information and I shield you with my Semblance, and next time we see each other you give me my information and help me find Watts," completed the boy, crossing his arms over his chest. "Then we interrogate him, we find Summer, and I can get rid of this damn connection."

"And what about her?" Roman asked, gesturing to Ruby.

"What about her?" repeated Jaune. "It's not like the police would believe her if she told them she witnessed a criminal meeting between Roman Torchwick and a guy named Jaune, so she's harmless."

"Hey!"

"You don't know the world as well as I do, kid, she's gonna put us in trouble," said Roman, raising his cane. "We should just get rid of her, or it'll come back to bite us in the ass, I just know it."

Jaune lowering his cane with a hand. "Even so she can't be older than sixteen, you're not going to murder a girl in front of me," he stated, narrowing his eyes. "Besides, even if she did report us, she'd need to face jail too as an accomplice."

"I'm not going to report you two!" snapped Ruby. "I want to come with you."

There was a beat of silence before Roman snorted and laughed mockingly. "Red, you'd be in way over your head if you joined a criminal operation," he sneered at her, reaching out to pat her head. "Besides, what would a goody-two-shoes like you do with criminal scum like us? Aren't we the bad guys, little Red?"

She swatted his hand away with the blunt edge of her weapon. "I want to find Mom. I want to find her and you seem to know where she might be," she stated. "So I'm coming with you to find Mom."

"I can understand the feeling, Ruby, but this won't be something easy," replied Jaune. "It's gonna be extremely dangerous. I'm not afraid, with my Aura level I could probably walk into a wildfire and come out on the other side unscathed, but you don't have that much Aura."

The girl tightened her hands into fists and looked away. "Do you know what the first thing I did last week as I got home was?" she asked tensely. "I cried. I locked myself into my room and cried, uncaring of the fact I was scaring my father with my behaviour. I cried because for years I thought my mother was dead and then you came in and claimed she wasn't, that she wasn't dead and I hadn't searched for her." Her frame shook once. "I don't know if you're right and she's alive but it's a chance. There's a chance she's still alive and I can't let it slip from my fingers."

Jaune sighed and placed a hand on her shoulder. As she raised her head to look at him, he stared at her for a second before he nodded. "I get it. I'd do the same if I didn't know my mother is really dead." He turned to Roman and scowled. "Change of plans, she comes with us. Besides, Summer'll be less willing to murder me if her daughter is with me."

"I thought you said she helped you," Roman noted with a raised eyebrow. "Why should she kill you?"

"Huh… Grimm hybrid, remember?" he gestured to himself. "She's a Huntress, it's her job to kill Grimm. I am technically a Grimm. Huntress plus Grimm equals a fight. Her versus me equals I die. Simple as that."

"Mom would never murder anyone!" exclaimed Ruby, furious.

"Not even a Grimm abomination she doesn't even know?" retorted the boy, anger sparkling for the first time. "People never cared for me even when I was human. Now that I'm Grimm, I don't think it would take much for people to try and kill me."

"Mom is a good person," Ruby stubbornly continued. "She-"

"There are _no_ good people in the world!" shouted Jaune, his skin paling and his eyes gaining a reddish hue. " _Everyone_ helps others only when they have something to gain! And even if she were to be a `good person`, she would kill me nonetheless, thinking she'd be doing a favour to the world by putting down an aberration like me!"

"She wouldn't!"

Jaune narrowed his eyes and his Grimm form receded. "If you want to come along, you need to stop dreaming and open your eyes, Ruby," he said coldly, each word a knife of ice. "The world's no fairytale, and there is nothing you can do to make it better. All you can do is to try and survive. People are the true monsters, Ruby. The Grimm? Beasts with no soul nor mind. But people? Monsters with corrupted souls and twisted minds. Remnant is a world of shades, not heroes."

"But-"

"ENOUGH!" Jaune stomped his foot and his Grimm form came back with a vengeance, completely turning him. Ruby recoiled and almost jumped back. Even Torchwick seemed unnerved. "Being naive will get you killed, and I have no wish to take along someone who'll just drag us down and get herself killed. You don't want to believe the world is dark? Fine, don't. But act like you did, or the world is gonna kill you at the first occasion it got."

Ruby nodded shakily and Jaune turned to Roman, slowly morphing back to human. "Give me your hand," he commanded sternly. The thief slowly raised a hand and flinched when he snatched it forcefully. Within a second, a pure white glow surrounded both the thief and the Grimm, and then his hand was free again. "Done. When you need it, send a message. Now shoo, you have stuff to do and I have to give these to my sisters."

Roman looked down at his hand, seeing no visible mark, and back up at Jaune. "How do I know you did it?"

Jaune grinned like a shark. "You could try hurting yourself…" he offered as he grabbed the hem of his shirt and lifted it up. "Otherwise, this'll be enough," he completed, pointing down at his chest. Ignoring the cuts and scars, Roman could now clearly see a new rune on his body. The boy grinned again and lowered his shirt. "I'll see you later, Roman. As for you, Ruby, give me your Scroll number so I can call you when we set off. And don't be late or you'll be left behind."

After a quick number exchange, the three unlikely allies left the storehouse, each lost in their own thoughts. Jaune lifted his head to look at the fractured moon for a second before he sighed and continued to walk.

On his chest, a pentagon with Torchwick's symbol in it shined.

 ** _Well, at least they're using protection._**

 ** _Short as usual, intense as usual, grim as usual. A normal chapter for Khor Evik Vlakhavlakh, isn't it?_**

 ** _Next chapter will be Roman's escape from the bossy Cinder Fall._**

 ** _Until next time,_**

 ** _Khor Evik Vlakhavlakh_**


	5. Slave No More

**_Hey everyone! This chapter is 2.3 k words instead of DSoG's usual 2.4 or 2.5 k, but it's packed with action and humour. Yes, also humour. Roman is not one to leave without humour, eheh..._**

"I do not like your tone, Roman. _Where_ were you last week? And the week before? Ever since the robbery gone wrong, you've been awfully… skittish." A soft yet burning hand settled on his cheek with that last word, and the thief shivered. "And you've started to look into things you shouldn't be looking into… What does that mean, Roman?"

"Well, Cindy, it's hard to avoid looking into forbidden matters when you don't even tell me they are forbidden," he replied nonchalantly. He did not make the mistake to try and remove her hand. "And maybe you'll forgive me if all these risks you've been having me take are making me a little nervous."

"Ah, is the great thief starting to be too frightened to uphold his reputation?" Cinder smirked sensually. With any other woman, Roman would've found it sexy, even if useless, but with Cinder it was just dangerous. Everything about her was dangerous.

Roman despised Cinder Fall. The woman had one day walked into his storehouse with a street urchin and the son of his contact Marcus Black. Apparently, Black's kid knew about him as well. She had merely killed the few men who had tried to stop her, incinerating them without as much as slowing down.

From that day, Roman had become her bitch. He grimaced every time he thought of it, not missing the irony of being the bitch of a bitch. She had forced him to drop all his projects and focus on hers. Everything he did had been turned into everything _she_ wanted him to do. Roman Torchwick, criminal mastermind of Vale, had become a mere pawn for her to use. Her two underlings, no freer than him but pretentious and arrogant, thought it was funny to see the great thief cornered and forced to do their dirty work. They had been idiots. Black especially, he should've known not to underestimate Vale's most wanted. Roman Torchwick wasn't a fighter even though his Semblance was pretty handy in a fight. Roman Torchwick had contacts, a sharp mind, no morals and no loyalty. They shouldn't have underestimated that.

But Cinder Fall was so arrogant and full of herself she couldn't see what was right under her nose.

Cinder Fall was powerful, and nothing else. Roman had observed her. She used power and strength to get what she wanted. She used power and fear to command her underlings. She used power and threats to win discussions. Subtlety was only a possible mean to achieve more power to her, charisma a stupid skill of the weak and diplomacy useless babbling. She had power, and she thought she could win every battle with it.

She should've known that power could win battles, but it wasn't what won wars.

Roman was different. With her always on his ass his influence, once known in all of Vale's underworld, had faded into nothing. No one took him seriously any more. But that hadn't defeated Roman. That had only angered him. The fashionable crook still had his contacts, his skill, his charisma and his sharp intellect. And that was what he had used to keep Cinder off him long enough for him to pull a plan together.

He had smiled while planning. It had reminded him of his younger days at Beacon Academy, as leader of Team TASK.

Cinder had a project. Torchwick had a plan. Cinder completely relied on threatening the others into doing what she needed. Roman offered the others to work for him with gains on both sides, ensured loyalties, and relied only on himself. Two leaders, two completely different methods.

But the advantage Cinder had was power. She couldn't be defeated. Torchwick hadn't lasted anything more than five minutes the first time he had tried to fight her. And his multiple attempts to escape her had been met with dead henchmen, angry flames and pain. Torchwick couldn't beat her in raw offensive power, he knew that much. He would need to beat her in other fields.

His right hand, the one still in his pocket as if resting there, opened his Scroll and he began to move through the contacts by memory.

"Scared and nervous are two different conditions, Cinder," he retorted, wincing inwardly when the heat of her hand increased. For all her lack in leadership skills, Cinder had power. Sometimes that was all that mattered. "After the failed robbery, and the fact I apparently overstepped boundaries I didn't know were there… I'm just nervous you will keep not telling me anything and punish me when I go against your wishes by ignorance."

Cinder's eyes blazed as she stared at him, but the stand-off didn't last long. Cinder was powerful, but Roman was an experienced liar with more years of lies under his belt than the years Cinder had lived. Her eyes lost their flames and the hand was removed. "Very well. You do not have to worry, Roman. While I'd prefer if you didn't investigate on some topics, I won't punish you if you unknowingly overstep your boundaries. You are a useful pawn, it'd be a waste to kill you for your ignorance."

Roman's hand began to sent the message.

"Well, then I guess you won't mind if I try to sate my curiosity, right?" he smirked charmingly. Inwardly, he was sweating. Trusting his life on a kid wasn't something he would've ever done, and even if the kid was his only way of escaping Cinder Roman didn't like the idea. The woman stopped, and his underlings looked at the thief, shocked by his boldness. "I mean, I know how the saying goes `Curiosity killed the cat`… but wasn't it also `but satisfaction brought it back`?"

"I'm not sure the answers you are looking for would bring you back from where I would send you, Roman," Cinder threatened. Honestly, Roman couldn't bring himself to be scared by her threat. It had gotten old after the hundredth death threat on the first day.

That woman was a terrible boss. That was why he was going to leave her soon.

"Cindy, it's just a few questions," he smiled at her. "Besides, it's not like you would allow me to use those information, am I right?"

"And why are you suddenly so interested in Watts?" she asked, an edge in her voice.

She had fallen into his trap. "Watts? I never said anything about him? I have no interest in him…" He smirked. "Or at least, I _had_ no interest in him. But now that you mention him…"

"Roman, you are playing a dangerous game…"

"Oh, but Cindy, I did nothing but point out something _you_ said…" His smirk widened. "So… you were the one to kill all my informants? That was rude, you could've just told me to stop… I kinda needed those."

 _Ding_.

Perfect.

Roman grinned. He would need to flee, but at least he could flee with style. "You know, Cindy, I've always asked myself something…" he said as he took slow, measured steps backwards. "I really hope you're loose, because I'm about to tell you to go fuck an Ursa."

Cinder's eyes blazed and a fireball formed in her hand. "Roman…" she growled menacingly.

Roman was done, he knew that. Now it was Jaune's time. He had done what he had been able to, and now he needed to be saved by the kid. Uncaring of his inner turmoil, the crook gave her an award-winning smile. "Don't be such a sourpuss, Cinder… besides, your kind should breed together, right?" He closed his eyes as the fireball smashed into him, but his Aura hadn't even flared. Opening his eyes, he saw a powerful white glow coming from his body.

His grin widened to epic proportions. Oh yes, that was awesome. Roman Torchwick, the Untouchable Thief.

Another fireball hit him, yielding identical results, but it did tear him from his trance. Despite the kid's insane amount of Aura, it wouldn't last forever. He grinned and quickened his pace, bringing his cane up just in time to deflect Black's shots. The boy was skilled, he could give him that. Unfortunately, they weren't master thieves.

He dived to the side just before the last fireball hit, incinerating a crate full of Dust and causing the Dust to explode. Making use of his Aura shield, he was unharmed, while Cinder and her underlings were thrown back. Idly, Roman wondered if the kid suffered from the explosion's force as well as the actual damage to his Aura. It would've been kinda amusing to see the kid flying from a blow that wasn't there while he remained unmoving in a Dust explosion.

His Scroll ringed again and he panicked, checking the message.

 _WTF are you going through?!_

Uh, so that Dust explosion had been quite powerful. Roman pondered how much more Aura he `had` as he turned a corner and continued to run, ignoring Cinder's angry cries from behind him. His Scroll ringed a third time, and he blinked. _'Already out of Aura?'_ he thought…

 _'case your wondering, that was nothing._

Roman breathed out in relief. Okay, it was time to make full use of that Aura of his. Beside, Roman Torchwick needed to make a grand exit, not to run like a mere little thief. He grinned as he exited into the storehouse, glancing at the numerous White Fang grunts grouped there. _'Stupid animals. They want freedom yet they are only forcing more blame and hatred on their kind…'_ he thought as he ran past the surprised groups, Cinder on his heels.

Damn, that woman was faster than he had expected. Oh well, it wasn't like Roman Torchwick cared about those imbeciles. He halted and turned to face Cinder with a charming smile. "Oh, Cindie, how lovely seeing you here," he smirked at her. "You know, you should run more often. The heavy breathing makes your chest stand out even more… I didn't think it was possible."

Cinder growled as she created another fireball in her hand. "Roman… I don't know what game you're playing, but it ends now. You will do as I say, when I say, and how I say," she snarled at him, all pretences of polite threat gone, now replaced with mere rage. Sheesh, the woman was temperamental much. "Do you understand? I'm tired of looking after your pathetic criminal life. If you value your body as it is, and not in ashes on the floor, I think you already know the answer you should give."

"Of course I do," chuckled the thief. A group of curious White Fang had gathered, partially amused at seeing their `boss` being manhandled so roughly by such a beautiful woman, and partially just to stare at the woman herself, who had no problem showing off skin. "And I must say, your offer does not interest me. If it were to be on the floor, _our_ clothes in ashes, with you… well, I won't lie and say that wouldn't be interesting." Cinder's hands closed into claws, and Roman inwardly smirked more. Getting a rise out of her was so easy, and so amusing. Especially when he had an Aura shield that would probably save him even if the ceiling decided to collapse on them. "But alas, your attitude is a complete turn-off even with a body like yours. So I must decline your offer."

"Roman…"

Torchwick fired.

More than a few White Fang grunts had deadpan expressions as they watched the bullet being shot definitely _not_ in Cinder's direction. But that hadn't been his goal. His goal had been to hit something else.

The explosive bullet hit a crate of Dust and exploded, causing a chain reaction. Cinder's eyes only had the time to widen before all the containers got caught in the explosion. The last thing Roman saw of her was her rage-filled eyes as she threw her last fireball at him, the fire doing nothing if not making him glow white. Then the explosion reached him too, and he found himself being actually pushed back. Apparently there was a limit to how much could the kid's Semblance do. His Aura was still intact, but his Scroll ringed again. He ignored it for the time being and covered his mouth with a sleeve as he ran through the smoke and out in the open. There were no White Fang around, so that was actually a plus in his books. He ran into a side alley before opening his Scroll.

 _WTF was that?! Did you just walk into a volcano!? You have less than twenty percent less, you idiot! Get out of there!_

Roman grinned. Oh, the kid was worried about him. How cute. Plus apparently even the kid had limits. That explosion must've done a number on his Aura. He knew for sure that only Cinder, and maybe her two underlings, had survived, and not without damage. All the White Fang around them had died. Twenty percent or not, he was safe now, and even if someone had managed to survive, he would be remembered as the thief who fucking blew himself up in a damn Dust storehouse and lived to tell the tale. Eighty percent of Aura gone or not, Roman was utterly satisfied.

He shot the kid a quick message to tell him he could lower his blessed shield and continued to walk away. He knew a place, Junior's, where he could crash for the night before meeting up with the kid the day after.

He froze as he realized what he had just thought, and looked down at his Scroll.

 _"You can take off that shield, kid. Blessed thing saved my life thrice over already."_

Roman Torchwick had just called something `blessed`.

"I must be turning into some stupid anti-hero goody-two-shoes…" he mumbled to himself before looking back at the warehouse, and thinking of all the people he had just killed just for the sake of a dramatic exit. "…or maybe not. Besides, I have style. Heroes never have style."

His conscience quieted, he returned to calmly, stylishly, walking to where he could sleep for a night.

 ** _Wow, Roman really knows how to make an exit, uh?_**

 ** _And of course he's not a goody-two-shoes. Maybe, later on this story, he'll turn "good", but the point is that bad people and good people CAN work together for a common goal. Sure, Jaune and Ruby will probably rub off on him and he'll rub off on them, but eventually it's not like doing something "good" automatically makes you "good"._**

 ** _I'm not planning on having Roman turn good for quite a bit still._**

 ** _Anyway we have now seen that even Jaune's Aura has a limit. Do you want to know how much Aura does he have? Let's put it in numbers. For example... Yang (you know Yang?) has A+ or 140. Well, Jaune has SSSS, or 800._**

 ** _So yeah, he's got a lot of it. An awful lot. But that Dust explosion... yeah, that took out much. Roman freaking blew up the whole storehouse!_**

 ** _So... next chapter will be about Ruby skipping school. Or rather, dropping out of school to follow two criminals and murderers in a wild search for her mother, breaking several laws while they're at it._**

 ** _Next chapter: Skipping School._**

 ** _Until next time,_**

 ** _Khor Evik Vlakhavlakh_**


	6. Skipping School

**_Heya everyone! I'm pretty sure you were expecting this later today, weren't you? Well, today was lucky, it seems. Don't expect Extension to come out today as well, though. I'll start writing it but I probably won't finish it until tomorrow. And... yes, I guess I really am upholding my updating streak... but it's probably not gonna last._**

 ** _Anyway, I'm pretty sure you are more interested in the chapter than in the rambling of the author, so... well, just read on._**

They were nervous.

Roman and Jaune stood in the middle of Signal's courtyard, blending in with the crowd of relatives picking up the students, their disguises too perfect for them to be recognized, but not perfect enough to soothe their nerves. Jaune himself had just changed his clothes into some old rags of Roman's, and even those were ten times better than his own, while the thief had to change his hair colour, wear glasses and change outfit.

The blond now had his hair brushed, dyed brown and tied up in twintails that fell down his back. Roman had also helped him with some makeup to cover all his scars, taking a full makeup kit out of his bag without as much as blinking. His old hoodie and jeans had been replaced with an old light grey trenchcoat that went down to his thighs, and dark grey trousers. His old and worn-out shoes had been replaced with heavy gunmetal grey boots, and his gloves with brown leather gloves. All in all, he looked like he had taken clothes from different outfits and worn them without caring for aesthetics. He didn't have Crocea Mors with him, since he didn't trust himself not to be recognized with him. A layer of paint wouldn't do miracles, after all.

Roman himself was less nervous, but no less alert. He had dyed his hair black, a colour he would be getting rid of as soon as they walked out of the combat school's courtyard, and decided to wear glasses. The lens were just glass, of course, so he would be still seeing perfectly, but they did wonders for his disguise. Instead of his usual outfit, he went darker with black pants and jacket, a shirt as red as his hair was, dress shoes and dark grey gloves. His cane wasn't with him, either, although he did have hand-to-hand combat training and he wasn't worried about being found out.

"Are you sure we shouldn't wait for her at the chosen location?" Roman asked nonchalantly, not bothering to keep his voice down. "Why pick her up at this stupid school of hers? Didn't you two agree on meeting up at Junior's?"

Jaune elbowed him. "Keep your voice down!" he hissed furiously. "In case you haven't noticed, we are in a crowd of people, some of them even Hunters!"

"Eh, it's always amusing to see your ignorance," chuckled the thief before raising his voice. "Hey folks! Could you move aside, 'cause I need to go and burn this school to the ground!" Jaune froze as some people turned to them. Torchwick merely grinned and held up his hand closed in a V shape. A couple of people grumbled, a few chuckled, but most ignored him. "See? People don't give a shit about their surroundings. I could proclaim my intentions to destroy all of Vale and they wouldn't care. That is, until you become famous. But right now I'm not the infamous Roman Torchwick, Vale's most wanted. Right now I'm just a nobody, and as a nobody I'm ignored. Isn't this what happened to you too? Weren't you ignored by everyone as well?"

Jaune glanced at the people before sighing in disgust. "Fine. Ugh, it sickens me to say this, but you're right. I guess I should start trusting you on this more… after all, you're the expert." He ran a hand through his now clean hair and looked at the school's building. "We're picking her up here for two reasons. The first is that I'm impatient, she's impatient, and you're impatient. We are all impatient for this search to start and, frankly, even more eager for it to end. So picking her up here would speed us up, even if just by an hour or two. Besides, she said she's already left a note for her father. She didn't mention me nor you, just that she'll search for her mother. She told me her father wouldn't return home until this evening, so we have a few hours before we have our first experienced Huntsman on our tail. An hour or two more could make a big difference"

"And that's actually something I can agree with you on," nodded the thief. "You're making progress, kid. And the second reason for why I had to commit a crime as horrible as dying my hair and foregoing my hat?"

"The second reason is because I don't trust her one bit," he replied, and Roman smirked a bit more. "She could very well try to do something at Junior's, like taking the information and then selling us out to the police. Or to her father. She won't be expecting us to be here to pick her up, so she won't have planned anything. And even if she does cause a ruckus, we are under disguise, and she wouldn't find explaining it all pleasant. She is chargeable for complicity with criminals. So meeting up here gives up the surprise factor."

"What if she planned for you to think of this?" the thief countered.

"She might've set a little trap for us but she's too naive to make a full plan," retorted the boy. "She won't be expecting this. In case she didn't set up a trap, she'll be surprised but nothing too bad. In case she did, she'll be frustrated by her plan's failure, and I'll sense it."

"You'll…"

"My Grimm blood allows me to sense emotions, yes," nodded Jaune. "Negative emotions are easy to sense. When they are weak, I need to focus on the person but when they're strong it's child's play to pick up on them. If I focus on the person I can also feel strong positive emotions, but I think that's a corruption of the Grimm essence by my human blood or something."

Roman scoffed. "Human blood corrupting the Grimm essence… you know, most people would say it the other way around."

"My Grimm blood helped me way more than my human blood ever did," he retorted, looking down at his right arm and pinching his skin hard until it broke. A single droplet of blood appeared and he held out his arm to Torchwick. The blood was brilliant vermilion red. Under the thief's eyes, the skin began to slowly repair itself without any help from his Aura. "Regeneration. Strength. Stamina. The Grimm might've tainted my soul, but it helped my body in many ways."

Roman stared, transfixed, as the skin repaired itself. It was a slow process, as opposite to the semi-instantaneous healing of Aura, but he was healing without using his Aura. He looked up at his face, at the scars and marks covered by makeup. Jaune tightened his hands into fists. "Those scars are from earlier. In a few months they might be gone completely, but in this case regeneration is much slower."

"You mean… they were worse than that?" asked the thief, surprised. "You have a mean number of scars already…"

"I had more and larger scars," nodded the boy, eyeing the school's door as it opened, allowing the students out. "In six months, my regeneration erased most of them. Now be alert because Ruby might even be the first to exit."

"I doubt it…" yawned the thief. "She's a child. She'll think that if today she exits quickly, everyone will think she's up to something and call the police. She'll probably be `stealthily` sneaking out, believing to be invisible to everyone, and she'll get looked at strangely by her peers. Typical teenager."

"I'm a teenager too, you know?"

"I wasn't talking about age of the body, Jaune," he snorted noisily. "I was talking about age of the mind. You're more mature than many adults I've seen. Sometimes you're more mature than me, even though you're far naiver. Don't take this as a compliment. Little Red… she's a child in the mind. She refuses to grow up, and she thinks that if she pouts enough then the world will allow her to remain a child forever."

Jaune shrugged, conceding the point. "Here she is," he said, nodding toward the figure clad in red exiting the school's door moving, or at least trying to move, like a ninja. A very clumsy and inexperienced ninja too. "Let's fetch her before she gets in trouble."

"Too late~" Roman sang sarcastically, gesturing to the two people heading toward the girl. "Maybe older siblings she called to help her out at Junior's?"

"No… as you said, she's too naive. She would've asked them to wait for her at Junior's so `stay under the radar`…" Jaune's eyes hardened as Ruby seemed to freeze, and he could feel some degree of fear coming from her as she noticed the two. "They're not friends of hers. She's scared of them. This means, she won't complain too much if I knock them out. We don't have time to deal with bullies too…"

"Plus you really want to punch in the face of every bully you see, right?" Roman smirked as the two quickly skirted out of the crowd and headed for the students. "You know, hated by humanity and all of that~"

"Yes, that's my secondary reason." He thought about it for a second before grinning. "Actually, that's my primary reason. She's probably able to handle them by herself, and this could attract attention on us, but I'm not giving a damn."

Roman chuckled. Just once. "Very well… let's see how vicious you can get."

Jaune didn't grin. He bared his teeth.

One of the two students was a bit too close to Ruby for her taste, that much he knew by how her fear seemed to increase the closer the guy got. Rape, it couldn't be since they literally were in the courtyard of a combat school, but a molester trying to get close to a student was possible. "Fucking schools," he heard Roman grumble as they walked toward the three. "They don't care about who they are training, they just give out superpowers like candies."

"Yeah, that's how _you_ graduated, right?"

"I…" Roman stopped for a second and shook his head. "Yeah, more or less. My team wasn't like me, though. We went separate ways after graduation. Two of us married, I went criminal, and another went murderer. Nice combo, don't you think?"

"At least two were happy," Jaune snarked.

Roman snorted. "Yeah, all that happiness they had. One died ten years ago. Her husband died like six months ago, slaughtered. The murderer I killed personally. And then there's me." He grinned. "I guess I can be counted twice for the happiness though, since… you know, all my majestic presence…"

"Your ego surely counts as two…"

"And your snark counts as ten," Roman shot back.

"So," a male voice interrupted their little fight as the two got closer to the students. "Pleasantries asides, I've always wondered one thing about you, even when I still studied here. I guess you won't mind answering a little question from your buddy Vero, now will you?"

Jaune observed the two. There was something coming off them. Vile amusement from one, and amused lust from the one who had spoken. _'Molesters,'_ he thought, and it took him quite the effort not to turn into Grimm already.

The first one, apparently `Vero`, was a boy around as tall as Jaune, with dark red eyes and what appeared to be black eyes. His theme coloured seemed to be black, and he had what appeared to be a segmented black sword slung over his back, scabbardless like most Hunters' weapons. His companion had steel grey hair with azure dyed locks in it, and light green eyes. His own colour theme seemed to be grey and azure, following his hair, and his own weapons were two rapiers that seemed kinda similar to a clock's hands, both steel grey with an azure line running down the middle, criss-crossing on his back.

The boy named Vero slightly leaned closer. "I've been meaning to ask you, before I went to Beacon… how would you look like without that skirt and corset." He chuckled and Jaune felt another spike of fear coming from the girl. "You know, you could just show us~"

"Or I could show you how far I can throw you~" Jaune replied from behind him. The two boys turned to him, and Jaune sent a quick glare at Roman, who had deviated from the path and had went to lean onto the wall, merely enjoying the scene. It didn't matter. Jaune was more than willing to throw the both of them. His eyes met Ruby's, and he felt her fear only increase at seeing his bloodlust.

"And who would you be?" sneered the boy called Vero. "Also, pigtails really don't suit you… gay."

Jaune raised an eyebrow. Was that supposed to be an insult? "Who I am is very simple, I am Ruby's cousin." he lied smoothly enough. Roman's snicker told him he hadn't been as smooth as he thought, but the two didn't seem to have caught onto his lie. "My name is Zephyr Rose, and yours would be…?"

"Nothing you need to know," snorted the other boy.

"Okay, so Vero and Nothingyouneedtoknow," nodded Jaune. "Stupid names aside, I think we have a little problem. You see, I'm here to pick Ruby up from school, while you were apparently picking _on_ her. As her cousin, I must ask you to stop, and go home."

Vero scoffed with a vicious smirk, drawing his sword from his back. "You might wanna tell that to my sword," he taunted him.

Jaune looked at the sword. Maybe Roman had rubbed off on him in the short two hours they had been passed together until then, or maybe it was just his inner exhibitionist coming out, but he decided that he didn't just want to kil… punch the moron. He wanted to do it with style, possibly scaring the shit outta them. He grinned as reached out and grabbed the sword's blade, uncaring of the sharp edge digging into his hand, before he spoke right into the steel. "As her cousin, I must ask you to stop, and go home."

Vero scowled at him for the little stunt, but his smirk returned almost immediately as he noticed his bleeding hand. He pointed at it with a smirk and sheathed his weapon. "Look, I don't wanna hurt you any more than you just hurt yourself. My Semblance allows me to negate all Aura in a wide radius, so you have no chance against me."

Jaune could feel Roman's frown more than he saw it. _'No recruiting this one, no matter his Semblance,'_ he decided. "Really? Neat," was all he say before delivered an uppercut to the boy's chin. Even as human Jaune had never been _weak_ , but with the Grimm enhancing his body he was a monster. Vero was sent flying and actually landed on the roof by that hit alone. It had been lucky, Jaune knew that he probably stood no chance against a Beacon student, but it had worked.

The other made to draw his weapons, and Jaune _growled_ at him, his eyes turning Grimm. The still unnamed boy froze at the sight of the pupilless, scleraless, irisless red eyes. "I suggest you not to try the patience of a relative of someone you just tried to molest," he snarled at him, and the boy quickly decided to hit the road.

Jaune grabbed Ruby by her wrist and dragged her out of the courtyard, Roman following them, trying to make it look like they were in a hurry and nothing else. In his opinion, he managed it alright, but again Roman's snickers from behind them dispelled that illusion. As soon as they were out of the school, Jaune turned to Ruby with an angry frown.

"Now, what was that?" he asked, almost pulling at his hair. "I mean, I know for a fact you could've just speeded out of there. And I know you saw them coming, so why didn't you run? Or why didn't you kick their asses?"

Ruby slumped a bit. "I…"

"No, stop, I didn't mean it like something you had to answer to." Jaune sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose. "Okay, you don't know who we are since we are disguised. I'm Jaune, and I think you can guess who he is."

Roman tipped an invisible hat toward Ruby, whose eyes widened. "Wait, you…"

"We picked you up at school, yes, we didn't want any `surprises`." He held up a hand to stop her from protesting. "I told you, you might believe the world is nice but I told you to act like you thought everyone to be a traitor. I don't trust you, that much is clear, so don't act surprised when I am cautious."

"The why are you trusting Torchwick so easily?!" she protested.

"It's not like I have much of a choice. Besides, I don't trust him. I have to hope he does what he's told to do without tricks, but I don't trust him. And for good reasons." Roman snorted his amusement. "So no, I don't trust either of you. One day, maybe, I'll trust you but not right now."

Ruby seemed to just slump more with that.

"Now, given that bastard's Semblance, I guess you were too scared by him to do something, but let me tell you a story about fear as we reach Junior's…" he said as the three of them started walking.

"Really? I love stories!" exclaimed Ruby, but Jaune's expression wasn't cheerful. "By the way, we should stop at a bar nearby to pick up my stuff. You know, clothes and all for the journey. But anyway, what's the story?"

Jaune's eyes darkened before an eerie red light lit them up from the inside. "It's the story of a boy who everyday had to face an enemy he knew he couldn't defeat," he said. "It's not a happy story. It's not a fairytale. And it's not fiction. All this really happened to someone I know. It's a story of how even the weak can stand up to the strong… even if they will always lose, they will never be defeated. And no matter how desperate his life was, no matter how dead his future was, this is a story of how the boy learned not to fear those who were stronger, only those who could _defeat_ him."

He looked up at the bright, cloudless sky. "It actually began on a day just like this. Bright, sunny, and serene…"

 ** _Wow, Jaune telling his own story, how original..._**

 ** _Yeah, that's a cliché I could've avoided but honestly? I didn't want to avoid it. And the ones among you who have also read Trail of Blood, you will see that I really hate my own OC Vero Tear. The other was Niall Wizard, the chronomancer, another of Team TTNN. What were they doing at Signal? It's simple, really. They were there on their free period to pick on the students there. Vero is a former Signal student so he also had his eyes on Ruby earlier than that._**

 ** _And before you ask... yes, I already planned for Vero to die in this story. He dies in most of the stories he appears in. Extension won't see him die but... you know what, I want to be a tease and I'm not gonna tell you! Ha! Wait until chapters 8 and 9 of Extension for it!_**

 ** _And please, PLEASE, don't repeat the rock-throwing thing._**

 ** _Next chapter: Welcome to the Underworld. Our three heroes (heroes? Are we sure about that? Maybe villains fits better...) reach Junior's and they start their little search. What will happen? Also, will Taiyang and Qrow find them before they can find Summer? Who knows? Not me, to tell the truth._**

 ** _Until next time,_**

 ** _Khor Evik Vlakhavlakh_**


	7. Welcome to the Underworld

**_*strolls around in the kitchen with a cup of tea in my hands*_**

 ** _Oh, look, I've finished a chapter. Let's post it. This is slightly longer than the average of DarkerShade's chapters, more than 3k words, but still pretty short, isn't it? Well, what can I say? Life is not fair._**

Ruby was depressed.

She knew Jaune didn't mean to sadden her with that story. Well, she _thought_ Jaune didn't mean to. The boy was pretty much of a mystery. He had narrated that story is a strange way, like Yang when it narrated a new story. Like he was extremely used to telling tales, but at the same time had never told that particular story before. And there had been times where he had shown too much emotion for it to be just a normal story. But it wasn't that what saddened her.

It was the story itself. It was the story of a boy who never did anything wrong to deserve what he got, and yet went through what could only be called Hell on Remnant. And she could tell that he, like Yang used to, had censured most of the worst parts. But in the end… the boy never got a happy ending. His remaining family did, but him… he couldn't have a happy ending, not after everything he had gone through. He had been broken and could never be pieced together again. The story was nothing like the ones she used to hear from Yang, it was heavy with despair and defeat and in the end… not everything was fine again. There was no dashing knight and no perfidious villain. Just a boy too young to face such horrors, and a man who had been hurt too much by the death of his wife.

She wasn't stupid, she knew who the boy was.

But as they entered the pub known as Junior's, she realized she didn't want to ask him for confirmation. If that horror story had truly been the censured version of his childhood, she didn't want to know the real story. Torchwick too seemed to have realized the same thing, and if even the criminal mastermind who had several kills on his record didn't want to ask for more… Ruby, a mere fifteen-year-old girl way over her head into a quest to find her missing mother, was terrified of the answer she might've received. In a way, it was self-preservation. She knew that if she asked, he would turn out to have been right about her naivety, and she didn't want that. Proving a point wasn't important, but her innocence… it had been the only thing keeping her safe from the horrors of the world. And now that she could see what those horrors had done to someone who had shed his own innocence…

She sneaked a nervous glance at Jaune, who was marching on without a word.

She didn't want that. She didn't want to cast her innocence aside. She didn't want to become like him. She didn't want to snuff out the light she held in her heart and replace it with stone. Jaune was guarded, hard, disillusioned by the world and full of hurt. She was open, nice, optimistic and cheerful. They were polar opposites. She didn't want to become like him because deep down, despite having known him for very little… deep down, Jaune scared her. She was terrified of him.

She was scared by his acceptance of his Grimm blood. Grimm were the bane of humanity, and yet he almost _liked_ being a hybrid. It helped him, he said. But it also tainted him, and he didn't care. She was afraid of his scars. They weren't glorious scars from epic fights, they were the scars of someone who hated the world and had a _reason_ to act like that. She was frightened by his personality, so practical and hard. He acted like a robot, with maximum efficiency. He acted like one who knew the world didn't care about him, and thus didn't give a damn in return.

But what scared her most were his eyes. Ruby was _terrified_ of his eyes.

She had always been taught, ever since she was a little kid, that eyes were the window of the soul, and that if one had enough skill they could peer into people's souls by their eyes. Ruby was excellent in looking into people's souls. Uncle Qrow had always said it had something to do with her special eyes. She could look at people for who they were. Whenever she focused on Torchwick, she actually felt a little bit of pity for the thief. He was a man whose eyes changed often, but whenever silence fell over them and he lost himself in his own memories, Ruby could see a glimpse of a Roman Torchwick she hadn't thought existed. She saw a man tired of fighting for survival in a dog eat dog world. She was a man who had lived his life in regret. She saw a man who, despite how he acted during arguments or fights, just wanted to rest his mistreated soul. But if she saw something like that in a criminal like Torchwick… she was utterly terrified of what she could find in Jaune's eyes.

Oddly enough, she wasn't afraid of them when they were Grimm red. She was afraid of him the most when he was human. His eyes were impossibly blue, and their sheer depth taunted her, dared her to try and peer into his soul. Dared her to try and see what kind of damage his soul had suffered. She feared she would get lost trying to see his soul, lost in everything he had lived through.

Blaring music tore her from her thoughts.

She looked around to find herself in a red-themed pub. Apparently, they had reached Junior's earlier than she had anticipated. The pub itself had several floors, flashing lights and a staff in black suits. _'Wait a second…'_ she thought, recognizing those suits. "Are these…"

"That's the girl who knocked me out!" Apparently, she wasn't the only one to remember the fight. One of the men, one she vaguely remembered having knocked out of a window, was pointing a gun at her. Every other henchman pulled out a gun, or even two, and aimed them at her. "Shoot her!"

She could've easily defeated them all, she knew that, especially since she had Crescent Rose with her, but there was a small problem. Angering the owners of the club by knocking out all their henchmen would've probably been a good way to get on their bad side. And she had the inkling Torchwick and Jaune wouldn't have liked her to give them trouble so early during their mission. She was still on probation, so to speak. She would be allowed to remain only as long as she didn't hinder them. Botching their plan up after a mere day or so since she joined in would've probably been the best way to be left behind.

As it turned out, she shouldn't have worried about it. Criminal and harsh as they were, both her new companions were her new comrades. One didn't abandon a comrade in the underworld, because abandoning someone made them your enemy, and creating unnecessary enemies was a stupid thing to do in the underworld, where everyone already had enough enemies. She was part of the group, even if reluctantly accepted, and thus an attack to her was considered an attack to the whole group.

Jaune stepped in front of her, basically covering her entirely from the men's guns, while Roman tapped his cane on the floor to get their attention. "Please, there is no need for this," he drawled sarcastically. "The girl's been recruited. She's one of us now. And she's kicked the asses of some of you already, so you should bear her respect."

The thief chuckled as a robust man in a bartender suit pushed the goons aside. "Torchwick! What are you doing here? I thought you had been… well, blown up." The man adjusted his tie and looked at the other two. "These are two new 'recruits' of yours?"

"Allow me to introduce them, please. The short one is the Rose," he gestured to Ruby. "And Blondie is the Grimm. For this meeting alone, I'll be the Thief." Roman grinned even as Jaune placed a hand on his shoulder, ready to reforge the connection in case the goons opened fire. "As for what happened… I just quitted the job for a while. I got a task and since I can't rely on your imbeciles to even rob a Dust shop without my guidance… you get the picture."

The man known as Junior raised an eyebrow. "And you quit the job by blowing up an entire warehouse full of Dust, killing at least three dozens of your henchmen, and anger your boss? Last time you mentioned her, you seemed to be quite afraid of her."

Roman winced as he felt his shoulder bones creak under the sudden pressure of Jaune's hand. Damn, being a Grimm gave him super strength? He wanted to become a Grimm too, then! Sure, having the taint of the bane of humanity in him wouldn't have been nice, but if those were the benefits… "Nothing major, Junior. I just felt the need to quit with style." He felt his Aura begin to take damage and tried to shrug off Jaune's hand, unsuccessfully. "And Archangel? Could you please secure us a table? I'll order the drinks."

Releasing his shoulder with one last glare, Jaune nodded to Ruby and the two headed off to find a free table where no one would've been able -or interested- in overhearing them. Soon enough two twin girls walked over to them and led them to a table in the back, where no one would've been able to eavesdrop.

Shortly after, Roman and the bartender arrived as well, and the six of them sat down, them on a side while Junior's group on the other. Ruby was extremely tense, but she was the only one. Almost everyone else seemed oblivious to her nerves, except for Jaune. Too bad he was the one she was scared of the most.

They all took their drinks. Junior and Roman alike had some alcoholic rum stuff. The twins had two alcoholic milkshakes, one with cream and the other strawberry. How stereotypical. Ruby herself had received a Strawberry Sunrise, the only drink she had ever known the name of, and even then only thanks to her sister. Jaune had a strawberry-based alcoholic cocktail, one of those things with ice that were more alcoholic than one'd give them credit for. What freaked her out was the blood-red colouration of the liquid.

"So, _Thief_ , what can I do for you?" asked the man. "You're not the type to just stroll in and ask for a drink. Last time it was for men. And now?"

"Well, as you can see I got two new employees here. Archangel and Rose." He nodded toward them, and Jaune replied by slightly lifting his drink as if toasting. Ruby just fidgeted a little. "As you can see, one is a smartass while the other is still new to the job." Torchwick grinned. "Mil, Mel, mind giving her back her wallet?"

The girl in red huffed and held out a wallet with a rose symbol on it. "Too easy."

Ruby snatched it quickly, much to Roman's amusement. "See? Fresh from recruitment. Welcome to the underworld, Rose. She's good at fighting but really lacks in most other fields." He sipped his rum and grinned at Jaune. "Archangel, instead, is not the most subtle of lackeys but he's got an Oum-damned lot of Aura, and he's got the right attitude. They're not the best but the job came with these two."

"And the job is?" asked the girl in white.

"I'm afraid I cannot tell you that. You know, classified information and all of that," Roman waved a hand in the air with nonchalance. "But as far as I'm aware, Junior, you still owe me a favour to repay me for that failed robbery. I paid for those men, and Rose here knocked them all out in around ten seconds. Weapon deploying time included." Ruby chuckled sheepishly. Thankfully, it came off as a kinda arrogant chuckle, but Roman did glare at her for the sound. "That's how she got recruited."

"And what kind of favour do you want for that?" Junior downed half his glass in one go. "More men?"

"Please, Archangel here eats your men for breakfast," Roman inwardly winced at the strong jab he received in his side for his little job. "I need what you can tell me about one person, and where can I find him."

Junior set down his glass. "Who?"

"Dr Watts. I don't know the full name but-"

"Doctor Arthur Watts, famous in basically of fields of science, was banished by Atlas's Confederation of Scientists for his inhuman experiments, among which experiments with Grimm smoke… on humans." Ruby paled. "I know very little about what happened next, but it was all over the news a decade or so ago. I know he has some labs around in Vytal. Probably even one in Vale itself."

"Where?" Jaune growled, leaning forwards.

Junior scoffed. "Rom… _Thief_ , please keep your employees in check. I wouldn't want to have to allow Miltia and Melanie here to teach him proper behaviour." The two grinned and eyed Jaune with a vicious edge in their smiles.

Roman burst out laughing. "Oh my, you really think those two would even be able to bring _him_ down? You must've drunk too much already, Junior… Plus he could probably pull their limbs off like wings off a fly if he really wanted to." He wiped a fake tear off his eye before turning serious. "He might be my employee but he's still someone who works for me. Threatening him means threatening me. And you know how little I like being threatened. My boss learned it the hard way just three days ago."

"So it was revenge?" His question went unanswered. "Fine, play the game of silence if you want. I know there's a lab in downtown Vale. Near the docks area, Mistral Street number four-three-three. I know nothing else."

"This is enough," stated Jaune, rising from his chair without even finishing his glass. "We'll get going. It's late already. We don't have much time before…" He glanced at Ruby. "We should hurry. And your boss is probably already searching for you," he added, looking at Roman.

The thief sighed and nodded, downing the rest of his rum. "Party pooper, aren't you?" he snarked as he got to his feet. More than eager to get out of that place, Ruby shot off her chair. "Well, Junior, as always it's been a pleasure to meet you. Maybe next time I won't be in a rush."

"Maybe next time you'll actually pay for what you drink," snorted Junior.

"That would go against my style."

/-/

" _'I am going to search for Mom. She's alive, I know it, and I have to find her. Please, don't chase after me to bring me back, because I'm not coming back without Mom. And please Dad, don't tell Yang about this, she'll go rampage and I don't want nor need that. Quite the opposite. Your beloved daughter, Ruby Rose.'_ " The man finished reading the letter and folded it, his breath hitching. "She's gone, Qrow. This morning she went to school and now that I'm back home she's suddenly gone, and there is this note instead. I don't know where she is, Qrow, but I _know_ she is in trouble. I… I can't lose her too. I've lost too much already, we _need_ to find her. She will be hurt but this is for her own good. She is not ready for the world of Remnant, she could-" His breath hitched again and he couldn't bring himself to finish the sentence.

 _"Tai, I'm running as fast as I can right now. I'll be there in fifty minutes. An hour tops. Pack everything we might need, tell your boss you can't come to work for a few days, and wait for me."_ Qrow's voice sounded from the Scroll the man was holding. _"We will get her back Tai, I swear, you won't lose her."_

"Just get your drunkard ass here, then!" shouted the blond man, hanging up and quickly typing a new number. "Come on… dammit, come on! Work you… Ozpin! She's gone missing, I-"

 _"Taiyang, please calm down. What's happening. Who is gone missing?"_

"Ruby! I… she just disappeared! She never came back from school, her backpack is not here! She went to find Summer!" The man, Taiyang, gripped the table strong enough to shatter the wood. "I… please, you must help me! You must send someone… just find her! Send Yang! Send Yang and her team, they might cause enough chaos to bring Ruby out in the open! Qrow is already coming to pick me up, do something!"

 _"Ms Rose is missing? This is not good news. She is the last Silver Eyed Warrior we know of. We cannot afford to lose her."_ Ozpin's voice sounded pensive. _"I will send Ms Xiao Long's team, then, and I will keep an ear out for any match of Ms Rose's appearance. We will find her, Taiyang."_

The man hung up again and hurried to prepare what he and the man called Qrow could need in their chase.

/-/

"Ah!"

Cinder Fall leaned away from the wet cloth as it stung her wounds. "Cinder, stay still, you'll just reopen your wounds. Again." She opened her left eye to glare at the grey-haired boy who was tending her still hurting injuries. It had been almost four days, and yet her Aura was still returning slower than normal. The explosion had been so mixed in Dust components that apparently even some Aura Weakening Dust had made its way in it.

She held a grimace as the gravely burnt wound was cleaned again. She whole damn side had been scathed by the explosion, and she had lost three fingers of her right hand, leaving her with just thumb and index, the others mere stumps. Mercury hadn't fared much better in the explosion. He had been the farthest away and his assassin reflexes saved him from being killed on the stop, but his left prosthetic leg had been semi-liquefied, something that had hurt like nothing else in his life, and he had severe burn trauma all over his back, so much he had barely gotten any sleep in four days. Emerald had been the closest, and the explosion had killed her on the spot, taking with her part of Cinder's plans. They would need to adjust them to what little Dust they had left, and they would need to find another henchman to replace Emerald. More, if possible. And meanwhile.

"I'll kill you, Torchwick," she hissed through the pain. "I will kill you and everyone who will try to stop me."

 ** _Ooooh, things just got interesting, haven't they?_**

 ** _Well, of course they have. It's kind of the point. It's a story, it should be interesting._**

 ** _Next chapter: Unwelcome Guests. Between Taiyang, Qrow, Yang's team, Cinder, Mercury and possibly the whole White Fang serching for them... are they really going to stay under the radar? Nope. Stealth, thy name is Ruby Rose. Subtlety, thy name is Jaune Arc. So... who is gonna find them? The best party, of course..._**

 ** _Anyway... what can I say? Leave a review to tell me what do you think, or don't leave a review, whatever you want._**

 ** _Until next time,_**

 ** _Khor Evik Vlakhavlakh_**


	8. Unwelcome Guests

**_Heya guys! Here I am with DarkerShade! Oh, and I'm posting this a bit late on my end, but whatever. It doesn't matter._**

 ** _Er... on with the chapter?_**

Fortunately for Junior, his doors had been open when Yang Xiao Long stormed into his club like a fire, and just as painfully angry. Her eyes were red and her hair aflame. Behind her trailed three other people. One was a shortie he immediately recognized as Weiss Schnee, heiress of the Schnee Dust Company and as such trouble. Her pristine white hair, white-themed outfit, highly expensive clothing, and most of all the sneer of distaste on her face were a dead giveaway. With them there was a tall, large boy with burnt hair and porcine blue eyes, and a boy with a green mohawk and blue eyes.

Unbeknownst to Junior, they were Team WYTC, for some reason spelled Witch, of Beacon Academy, and he was in for one of his worst evening yet.

Yang didn't even bother with the pleasantries, instead directly grabbing him by his suit and slamming him against the wall. "Have. You. Seen. My. Sister?!"

/-/

"Why are we here again?"

Roman Torchwick, criminal mastermind, Vale's most wanted, murderer and all around a man with no morals, sighed for the umpteenth time. _'Add babysitter to the list,'_ he sarcastically thought to himself. "Red-"

"Ruby," she immediately corrected him with a frown. Jaune chuckled from beside her.

"Ruby, Red, whatever," scoffed the thief. "We are returning here because our visit to the good doctor's laboratory completely wasted our time. And before we leave Vale to visit the lab Jaune knows about, it's better to have cleared this sector." He glared at her. "And one more thing, _Ruby…_ do try to be a little less childish and uselessly moronic this time."

"What did I do?" she exclaimed, outraged.

"You are now a criminal, Ruby," Jaune explained. "They expect you to act in a particular manner, and they will get bothersome if you don't act like they expect."

"Long story short, Red…" He once more ignored her correction. "You need to act harsher. I'm not telling you to be stupid and glare at everyone in the room. You must be guarded. That's what is important. You can laugh and giggle stupidly all you want, but as long as you appear guarded they will believe it's just a facade you put on for the fun of it."

"Like your 'style'?" commented Jaune.

"And like your snark and sarcasm," Roman shot back. "Anyway, Red, by acting like a child or overdoing it, you're gonna get them suspicious. Act guarded. Act as if every one of your movements is calculated. It'll make you look a bodyguard instead of a little girl in over her head."

Ruby pouted at that, and immediately got slapped in the back of her head by the thief. "Ouch! What was that for!?"

"No pouts, no sulking, no emo stuff you might be into. Gothic is accepted, if barely," he said, gesturing to her outfit. "You are a professional. I've seen you have a partially deployed mode for your little toy…"

"It's a sniper-only mode," growled Ruby. "And his name is Crescent Rose, not 'little toy'!"

"Stop acting like a child!" he berated her once again. "Anyway, if anyone gets too close to me, put your hand on your weapon, and make sure they _see_ you have your weapon with you. If someone even just appears to be threatening me, deploy it as rifle and aim at them until they back down. If they step up their game, deploy it completely. If that's the case, Jaune will use his little trick and make all of us glow white so to appear aided by his Semblance, that they still don't know about." Jaune nodded. "You are not to attack until they try to. You should be fast enough not to need the surprise factor. If we get into a big fight, we also get out of there. If it's a small one, we beat them until they are out like a rock."

"O-Okay…" she nodded.

"And please, no stammering, it makes you look childish and nervous," he continued. "This is not something you can mess up. You did enough this morning already."

"Hey, I just tried to help!"

"Yes, and you ended up setting fire to the kitchen," snorted Roman as their group entered Junior's club. "Next time just leave it to the kid. The other kid. He knows his way around in a kitchen, it seems."

"Any more rules?" she grumbled.

"No grumbles, either. A little growling could be forgiven but you growl like an angry kitten." Roman sighed as she growled at him, or at least tried to. "Case in point. Anyway, this is gonna be a quiet affair, so try not to catch the attention of the other patrons."

"Err… what?"

"Another childish habit of yours is never to see yourself as cute or even beautiful, and that's a phase all my sisters went through as well," Jaune interrupted. "Now, I could list all the reasons you are cute _and_ beautiful but we don't have the time. Just keep in mind that who you see just as little old you, the others see a young but undeniably lovely woman." He looked at her sternly. "And please, for the sake of everything I give a damn about in Remnant, that is actually very little, try not to blush at the slightest praise, because that is childish as well. Just accept it and move on."

"And in a club full of ill-intentioned or ill-educated people, a young cutie like is gonna attract attention, especially if she appears free and if she seems to be 'in the circle', as criminals say," commented Torchwick, chewing on his cigar. "Technically you _are_ cute, free and a criminal, so you'd be the perfect catch for those morons." He looked at Jaune for a second before he shrugged. "If they ask, tell them you're with Blondie here. Makes sense given how you have a 'joint job'. Plus I doubt they would have a good time trying to 'have words' with Blondie. Between your scythe toy and his freaky strength, the two of you are gonna be fine."

" _RUBY!_ "

"Why did I have to jinx it?" Roman sighed as he looked at the club. It was utterly destroyed. The men, a few of which gravely injured and in need of medical attention, were laying around over or under shattered debris. The Malachite twins were being held up by a large boy with short brown hair, while Junior himself was being pinned by a wall by a busty blonde with red eyes and flames in her hair. A Schnee-like girl and a boy with a green mohawk completed the invading group.

Roman glanced at a wilting Ruby. "Friends of yours?" he asked sarcastically as the blonde charged them.

"My sister Yang…" she replied meekly. "Can I… not fight her?"

"I'll fight her, I can probably overpower her," said Jaune, putting himself between the other two and the oncoming girl-meteor.

The girl called Yang slammed into him with a strength he hadn't been expecting, but alas even her punch didn't do much. Instead of trying to outmatch her by skill, he just decided to play dirty as he drove his elbow into her chest, aiming for her nipple or at least her breast. He was successful.

With a cry, she jumped back, cradling the hurting breast. For many people, it would've been an arousing sight. For someone like Jaune, who was also in a hurry, it was just annoying. Without waiting for her, he knelt and smashed his hand into the floor, crushing the debris with his Grimm strength and throwing it at her face.

It was a dirty trick, literally, but it worked its magic. She was blinded long enough for him to punch her with as much strength as he could manage, and it wasn't little. She was sent flying back at neck-breaking speeds. Luckily she did not break her neck, but her Aura took a huge hit.

"Don't hurt her!" Ruby exclaimed, basically teleporting beside him, and he rolled his eyes. How were they supposed to defeat her then? Offering flowers wouldn't work. "It's her Semblance! The harder you hit her, the more power she stores and can use to hit back twice as strong!"

Jaune sighed. "Couldn't you have told me _before_ I punched her?"

"RUBY!" With another shout, 'Yang' ran out of the debris she had been sent through, her hair aflame and her eyes still red. _'Well, shit,'_ he thought as she charged them again. Deciding that keeping her near Ruby would've been a bad idea, Jaune met her halfway. Now that she was the stronger one, and the faster, he found himself at the receiving end of all her powerful punches. With one final hit, she sent him crashing to the ground.

"Yup, not on par with Beacon's students," he grumbled as he stood up again. She looked surprised for a second before her eyes narrowed and she looked around, seeing Ruby fighting with the guy with the mohawk.

Looking back at him, he could've sworn that she had more killing intent in her eyes than he had ever seen in a Grimm. "Give her back," she growled, picking him up by his neck.

Normally, such a hold would've been extremely efficient on people, as it cut off their airways as well as lifting them off the ground. One of the biggest problems was the necessary strength for such a feat. Despite his power, Jaune still had lived starved for years, so he was around as heavy as Ruby, and 'Yang' was far stronger than she looked.

But to Jaune, that was the hold his father kept him in when he wanted to hit him the hardest. There had been many close calls with death because of that hold. He closed his eyes, not wanting to make her see them turning Grimm red, and grabbed her own throat as his skin and hair turned white. If his strength while human was great, his strength while Grimm was great plus one. And as opposite to her, who was just holding him, he squeezed down on her neck.

Her hands moved away from his neck almost immediately, trying to claw his own off, but in vain. She would've gasped once he opened his eyes, but no sound came forth. He continued to squeeze until her eyes became unfocused and hazy.

"YANG!" He barely heeded Ruby's shout as she appeared next to him. "Jaune, what are you doing!? You're gonna kill her!"

"No, just knock her out," he growled back, his eyes narrowing until Yang's rolled up in the back of her head.

Her last thought before unconsciousness claimed her was _'His name is Jaune…'_

Jaune stood up and dusted himself off. "Your 'sister' did a number on me," he hissed at Ruby. "Now let's help Roman with those three. The dudes seem just fooling around but the girl in white is actually doing something." _'And she reminds me of someone…'_ he added in his mind. He vaguely remembered white hair and empty words, but he couldn't quite place it.

"On it!" she exclaimed, bolting off to deal with the mohawk guy.

Roman was taking on the big guy, so he was left to fight the white haired girl. How bothersome. She seemed to rely on speed, and he relied on strength and stamina. Not exactly the best match. Nevertheless, he tried, charging the girl who sidestepped with problems and drove her rapier into his side. He barely felt it.

"Big, strong and stupid," she scoffed at him. "Not exactly the best opponent I've ever had."

The voice, the eyes, the hair… it all brought Jaune back to where he had seen and heard them before. And the memory was not a kind one, nor one he remembered fondly.

 _"If you dare say a single word about this, I will make sure you face prison for the rest of your miserable life," the woman before him said, white hair gathered up in a bun and kept out of her icy blue eyes. "But if you don't, I don't see why we shouldn't make this pleasant for you as well."_

It was a memory full of his failure. He hated selling himself for money and yet he had been forced to in order to bring in some money. He hated it, and hated every single time he did it to the level he had trouble reaching an orgasm. That was the level of disgust he had felt every and each time. But that woman, Winter as she had called herself, had been different. Despite being a customer like the others, she had made sure to 'take care' of him as well. She had been the only time he had _liked_ it, and that filled him with shame. Shame because he had enjoyed being violated for the umpteenth time. Shame that soon turned into rage.

If he had been angry earlier, his fury reached heights it had rarely reached before. The only time he had been so angry had resulted in his father's death. Now his Grimm side demanded the blood of the girl before him. He snarled, more beast than human, as he lunged at the girl. Taken by surprise by his sudden bout of speed, she tried to skewer him with her rapier, but once again his Aura just tanked the hit, and he slammed into her.

The first thing he did was to wrench her weapon out of her hands and drive it into the ground up to the hilt. The now terrified girl froze as his claws reached her neck and prepared to claw her throat out, but he stopped himself just shy of grazing her skin. Instead, he turned back into human and growled again.

"Tell Winter that her little angel says hi." His now clawless hands then closed around the girl's neck and squeezed until she passed out as well. It wasn't his favourite way of knocking people out, but at least he wouldn't have to fight her.

All in all, he considered himself lucky he had survived their attacks. The blonde particularly had been vicious, almost inhumanly so. He hoped not to meet her again, or his little trick wouldn't work any more. And she had really looked pissed with him. That, he could understand. He would've uprooted a mountain if someone had kidnapped one of his sisters.

Turning to the others, he saw that Ruby had dealt with the mohawk dude already, and that Roman was just playing with the other. His heavy mace was skillfully avoided and Roman's cane always struck true, so Jaune wasn't surprised when the thief bashed the boy's head one last time, knocking him unconscious, and turned toward them without the tiniest sign of having put any effort in the fight.

 _'Why do I have the feeling I got the hardest two?'_ he deadpanned to himself. "Well, it seems we're not gonna get any information from Junior, this time. I suggest we just leave."

"You don't have to tell me twice," the thief growled. "Not even a week, and little Red here already gets us in trouble. I told you she was just gonna hinder us."

"I-"

"She wants to find her mother, and we could use a fighter like her," Jaune countered. "Unless you were too busy with the big guy to notice, I got my ass handed to me by the blonde girl, and the only reason I beat the white-haired girl was because I took her by surprise with my Grimm form. And by the way, now they will think my Semblance to be some kind of transformation. Let's adhere to that."

"Holy words, we should really get out of here before the police arrives," grumbled Roman, breaking his own rule, as the three of them hurried out of the local. "As for your 'Semblance', I wasn't planning on showing your true one anyway, so I'm all for it."

"Yes but… what now?" asked Ruby, and both looked at her. "I mean… what do we do now? Where do we-"

"Grimwind Hills," stated Jaune. "That's where the lab I went in was. It was bigger than the one we visited in Vale, and it's probably gonna be full of Watts's little pets, but it's the only way we have now."

"Pets?" Ruby repeated, curious.

"Monsters. Grimm he experimented upon, or animals that suffered the same fate as me," he replied tensely. "Stronger, more durable and overall harder to kill. I cannot be sure they will still be there, but only six months have passed. It's possible they will still be there."

"Well, what are we waiting for, then?" Roman asked rhetorically, sarcasm evident in his voice. "Let's go get ourselves into a lair of super-Grimm with just the off-chance to find something useful for our damn mission. Yay for intelligence…"

"Do you have any brighter idea, instead of just complaints?" Jaune huffed. "Because Ruby's idea of asking Ozpin was more useful than anything you've said so far."

"I have gotten us a lead," he argued.

"A lead that turned out to be a dead end," Jaune shot back. "And-"

"Okay, okay, okay! Stop arguing!" Ruby exclaimed, getting between the two. "Our time might very well be running out, and so could Mom's. Arguing won't solve anything, and it will just exe… exab… exer…"

"Exacerbate?" Roman offered.

"Yes, that! It's going going to exaberc… to do that to our already unstable group!" completed the small Rose.

Jaune chuckled and ruffled her hair. "You remind me of my little sisters sometimes," he said lightly. "Well, then I guess we are set, aren't we? We have a lead and a place to go."

Roman sighed. "Grimwind Hills it is."

 ** _Just so you know: Jaune would've lost against Yang or Weiss. But dirty tricks and surprise can do much, plus there's also a tidbit of luck. Oum only knows how much luck Jaune needs. With this out of the way... well, there's nothing else. You all knew it would've been Yang's team. And Yang had a Yang-like reaction that got her strangled._**

 ** _Yang and Weiss are both still alive. And the snippet with Winter will be explained further on... maybe._**

 ** _Next chapter: Unforgotten Memories. Despite the name, the Grimwind Hills won't be very dangerous, only the lab. That's all I can say._**

 ** _Until next time,_**

 ** _Khor Evik Vlakhavlakh_**


	9. Unforgotten Memories

**_Whew, here I am. So... today I translated for around 6 hours straight, and my brain was steaming. I'm too rusty with my Italian, I've written too many fics... Plus here it's freezing cold so my fingers were actually slow from the cold as well. I just wanted to say that while it has been fun to keep up my 'streak', I fear it's coming to an end. I've gotten used to post a chapter each day so I'm pretty sad about it, but this is how life works. I'll try, but since my goal is to translate a chapter each day (the whole book has 24 chapters), I might not be able to do it._**

Winter Schnee sighed for the seventh time that day.

 _"Then that… that… that_ _ **thug**_ _actually_ _ **strangled**_ _my teammate! I found out she was just unconscious only hours later, when I woke up as well! And then he tackled_ _ **me**_ _to the ground, spouted some idiocy about you, and strangled me as well!"_ Weiss's voice shouted from the Scroll Winter was keeping at safe distance from her ear. _"All this could've been avoided hadn't that brute dragged us all to that miserable club. Besides, who_ _ **is**_ _her sister, if she associated herself with someone like Torchwick?! I don't know who the blond guy was, but everyone knows of Vale's most wanted! How could a fifteen-year-old girl join him?!"_

Winter rubbed her forehead. "Weiss, please. There is no need to shout," she pleaded. "I am not familiar with Vale's criminals nor with fifteen-year-old young criminals at all. And even if someone insulted me, he was probably trying to rile you up."

 _"Rile me up while strangling me? By spouting idiocies about angels?"_

Winter felt her blood run cold. "W-What?"

 _"Angels. He mentioned an angel."_

"Could you repeat the exact words?"

 _"He said 'Tell Winter that her little angel says hi'."_ Winter's grip on her Scroll went stiff. _"Winter? Winter, can you he-"_

Weiss's voice was cut off as she forcefully closed the Scroll, taking a long and deep breath. She uselessly tried to shut off the memories of the past, but they still chipped away at her willpower until they came back once more.

 _"That… was the… best night… of my entire… life…" a nineteen-year-old Winter panted as she laid on the bed, naked and tired in the early lights of the morning. "Thank you… Jaune…"_

 _By her side was laying a boy at least five years younger than her, his breathing still steady even after an entire night spent with the woman. She had to admit it, the boy's stamina was monstrous. He merely shrugged. "You paid. Show you around or please you, it doesn't matter," was his somewhat callous reply, and Winter winced. Then one of his finger traced her arm as he continued. "But… I enjoyed my time with you. I never enjoyed it before…"_

 _"Well, then… I guess I just… have to make… you like it… a bit more…" she grinned at him. Then her smirk vanished. "I'll… I'll pay the extra day…" she added with a sigh._

 _The finger stopped caressing her arm for a second. "I…" She looked at him and he sighed as well before his finger was joined by his entire hand, his palm now stroking her skin. "I'd like to enjoy it at least once in my life… without money in it."_

 _Winter smiled. "I can definitely do that," she replied as she straddled his waist once more. "That, and more."_

"Winter, are you okay?"

General Ironwood's voice tore her from her memories, and she looked up in surprise. The man was standing before her, holding her now broken Scroll in his hands. Looking down at her own, she noticed the bits of metal she was still subconsciously clutching tight. She took a deep, shaky breath as she let the twisted chips fall. "Yes sir."

"You don't _look_ fine," commented her superior, glancing at her ruined Scroll. "We'll get you another one. Bad news?"

"Memories."

Ironwood's eyebrow rose. "That bad?"

Winter shook her head. "The biggest mistake of my life, and the best night of my life," she replied slowly. "I took from someone something I had no right to take. And now it's coming back to haunt me once more."

The General stared at her quizzically for a few more seconds before he sighed. "How can the best night of your life be also your biggest mistake?" he asked. "Shouldn't the memory of your mistake sully the memory of that night?"

Winter let out a bitter laugh. "Sir, with all due respect, I don't think _anything_ could sully that memory."

Ironwood's eyebrow remained high. "That good?"

Winter unconsciously spread her fingers over her lower belly. "Yes, definitely that good," she replied weakly, her thighs pressing together as she felt need build up in her womb. "That, and so much more."

/-/

"So this is your famous lab?" Torchwick asked as the two of them looked at the decrepit building before them. "You know, I was expecting it to be a little more… lab-y. Or more intimidating. This thing seems older than Beacon itself."

"The lab proper is in the basement," Jaune explained wearily, glancing at the sleeping Ruby he had been carrying for a couple of hours now. She had fallen asleep on the cab they had paid to get to Grimwind Hills' village and hadn't woken up yet. Torchwick had laughed and teased him for the gesture, but to be honest Jaune hadn't stood a chance against his instincts. He had picked her up bridal style before he had even computed his own actions. "It's dark now. I'm pretty sure no one is gonna come here while searching for us, not after the mess we caused in _Vale_ , so I think we should set camp and enter the labs tomorrow."

"Can't you see in the dark like a Grimm?" Roman asked cheekily.

"No. I can perceive emotions because that ability is not related to my eyes. They are tastes, not visible effects like colours or auras," replied Jaune, stopping for a second to shift his hold on Ruby to get her more comfortable. "But my eyes are just normal. Not even as keen as a Faunus's."

"Wait, _tastes_?" repeated the crook.

Jaune winced at the slip and gave him a light, one-shoulder shrug. "Well… yeah. I mean, I do smell them like I can smell odours, and I feel their taste in my mouth sometimes," he stated slowly. Under the man's gaze, he sighed. "They don't taste good. Or at least, the negative ones don't. Fear tastes like ashes. Hatred tastes like rotten meat. Anger tastes incredibly bitter. Sorrow tastes very very acid, and physical pain tastes like blood." He chuckled at Roman's disgusted face. "Yeah, not very nice. Although the positive emotions taste much better. Happiness tastes like lemon ice cream. Love tastes like chocolate. Friendship, like simple bread… Courage tastes like hazelnut cream. And if I have to be honest… innocence, like what I feel from Ruby sometimes, tastes refreshing, like a glass of water when you're thirsty."

"You'd better not drain her innocence by being too _thirsty_ ," Roman teased with a grin, and Jaune just sighed. "Tell me, what does humour taste like?"

Jaune had to think about that one. "Repeat that joke," he asked, and Roman complied. "It's… complicated. I feel a bit of lemon like of happiness, but it's mainly… cherry, I think. I cannot be sure of it since it's been _quite a while_ since I last ate cherries, but it might be. Although sometimes, when your 'humour' gets too wicked it has a sour taste to it."

"I'm sorry but I can't stop. It's in the name," chuckled the man. "Roman Torch _wick_."

"Yang, please, stop… no more puns…" Both looked down at the still sleeping Ruby, who mumbled something about cookies and then returned to sleep. The two men exchanged a glance and chuckled.

As they prepared a campfire, Roman couldn't help but wonder if he had really changed so much, or if he had just been pretending before. Sure, he was still annoyed that Red had been allowed to come along as well, but that was minor. Roman Torchwick had rarely joked _with_ someone before. He was used to mock his opponents and even his co-workers, but that was it. No one ever replied to his humour and that was the status quo.

But with Blondie… he wasn't sure what had happened. They had been companions for barely a week. Maybe he had been amused by his snark, or intrigued by the complete absence of youthful innocence in his eyes… or maybe even interested in his strange powers. Whatever it had been Roman, who had ever only joked to himself, had found himself engaged in hour-long sarcasm matches and the strangest thing was that he enjoyed those. He had even found himself smiling sometimes. Not grinning nor smirking, just smiling. That was something old coming back and it… if he had to be honest, it wasn't unpleasant.

Although even with all his changes, Roman Torchwick was still himself. A sarcastic bastard, a badass criminal and a smart fighter. But most of all, a sarcastic bastard. "So, just so I know, you and your new little girlfriend are gonna do the deed tonight? 'Cause I'd like _not_ to be present. Y'know, privacy and all that stuff."

Jaune's cheeks reddened at the jab. "A criminal speaking of privacy?" he huffed back. "Please. Do you even know the meaning of the word 'privacy'?"

"Sure." Roman chuckled as he adjusted his bedroll. _'Bedrolls… barbaric.'_ "That does not mean I can't break into it. But believe me, I'd rather _not_ walk in on you two getting it on."

"You _won't_ ," Jaune replied, stressing the word, as his blush deepened. "I'm just doing what is right. She was tired and she wouldn't have lasted this far. Besides, this way she'll be more awake tomorrow." He gently set her down and tucked her in a bedroll before straightening. "Now, before you drawl on about it, who takes the first watch? There aren't many Grimm here, despite the name, but it's better to be careful."

"I'll do it," Roman sighed heavily. "Get some sleep, Blondie, 'cause you'll find out why no one likes watch turns. Especially the second one, when it's at its coldest and you still have to get out of bed."

Jaune merely shrugged and laid down without another word. Sleep didn't come easy, but since the alternative was asking Roman to knock him out cold, he had to accept it. Insomnia aside, he knew what was coming. There wasn't a night where the nightmares didn't come back, but being so close to the lab once again… it had unsettled him to say the least. He just hoped for the nightmares not to be too bad.

/-/

 _"Now,_ _ **Archangel**_ _, I need you to stay still. This might hurt… a little bit."_

Jaune awoke quietly, but he knew he had turned into his 'Grimm form' while sleeping. It made him feel safe. Or at least safer. He silently returned to his natural form as he looked around. It was probably near dawn, and Roman was sleeping soundly in a bedroll. On the watch there was Ruby, who just as he glanced at her yawned widely.

With a sigh, he stood up and walked over to her. He had never been a morning person, but willpower could do many wonderful things. She glanced at him as he sat down beside her without a word. "Jaune?"

"Why didn't Torchwick wake me up?" he asked, quite brusquely.

She seemed to flinch and immediately he regretted his tone. "I… I woke up a few hours ago," she confessed shyly. It made sense, she had slept in the cab and on their way there. But it still didn't answer his question. "After a while Torchwick went to wake you up and I told him I'd take the watch instead. He laughed and mocked me but in the end he accepted. I… you look so very _not_ fine, I didn't want to take even sleep from you." She looked down as her cheeks flamed up in both shame and embarrassment. "And… he told me you carried me all the way here because I fell asleep. I… t-thank you."

Jaune shrugged. "It wasn't a big deal. You aren't used to it. In time you'll be able to walk the Vale-Vacuo route without ever stopping."

"Really?"

"No, that was an exaggeration," he replied curtly. "But thanks for letting me sleep. As little rest as I had, I appreciate the thought."

Her cheeks just reddened more. "I-I… Y-You're welcome…"

He nodded in acknowledgement as he turned to watch the sunrise. As opposite to what Roman thought, he wasn't made of stone nor he acted like it. He still remembered the last sunrise he watched, with his little sister Jinn, before the seven of them were _unexpectedly_ accepted into Signal Academy. After a while Ruby turned as well.

While she was turned, Jaune glanced at her. She was just so innocent. Too innocent. He had seen and felt firsthand what the world like to do with innocents. Even his youngest sisters, who were twelve, weren't as naive as Ruby was. They knew of the ways of the world, and they knew of its cruelty. The world like to toy with innocents until they were innocents no more. Just like it had done with him and with many other people.

Ruby caught him staring and blushed deeply. "J-Jaune?" she stammered out. "W-What are you doing?"

"Staring," he replied flatly, and she flushed even more. "I thought that much was clear, but evidently it wasn't. I'm just wondering how can a girl who has lost her mother be as naive as you are. You are not much younger than I am, either. Just how have you been grown up? Hidden from the world, and the world hidden from you?" She looked hurt at that, and he sighed, rubbing his forehead. "What I mean is that your view of the world is… uncommon to say the least. I know that my own view is rare, especially among teens, but even so yours is too… _optimistic_ ," he offered, choosing another word instead of 'naive'. "You trust too much in people, you have faith that everything is gonna be alright, you believe that you can have your happy ending if you wish for it hard enough… I'm wondering how have you come to this point."

"But-"

"You lost your mother years ago. Or at least, you thought you did," he told her sternly. "Where did all that hurt go? I know for a fact that losing people hurts, it hurts like nothing else in the world. But you… you don't look hurt. You look like your worst problem is sleeping poorly at night, or getting a bad grade at school. Where did all the negativity you must've felt go?"

Ruby felt old wounds begin to stir within her. No, she couldn't allow that. She had buried them too deep to allow them to resurface. Instead, she changed topic. "And what about you? Aren't you the same?"

Jaune blinked.

"You haven't fooled me. Nor Torchwick, either. You basically told me your life story, removing the worst parts. Don't think I haven't noticed." She frowned at his surprised expression. "You… you're by far the grumpiest, brusquest, darkest, scariest and most hurt teen I've ever met. But even then it's not enough. Completely not enough. Despite all this attitude of yours, how can you be so _good_ after having been hurt so much?"

Jaune didn't reply. He glanced at the already over sunrise and stood up. "It's time to get up. I'm cooking something for breakfast, and then we enter the building."

Ruby stood up as well. "Don't think this is over," she said as she jabbed a finger into his chest. Idly, she noted how she could feel his ribs even through his hoodie. "I'm not going anywhere until I get my answer."

Anger flashed in his eyes and she took a step back. Then he realized he had just scared her, and sighed deeply. "I… Look, it's not something you want to hear," he deflected forcefully. "So let's just drop the topic."

"Not a chance," she stubbornly replied, jutting her chin out.

Jaune closed his eyes and took a deep breath. "I am not grumpy, brusque or dark. I am pragmatic," he explained slowly. "Pragmatism is what I need to keep my family alive, so I learned it. That's all."

Ruby looked at him and, for a second, she wasn't scared by him. Even when he had sat beside her, she knew she had been scared. But for a second, looking into his eyes, she didn't feel fear.

In his eyes… they were deep, but she didn't get lost in them. They still scared her at all times, but not as much as before. In them… she knew she couldn't see everything, but she could see some things. In his eyes she saw acceptance, sacrifice and loss. But she saw something else as well, something she hadn't thought she would've ever associated to the overly mature boy.

Love. She saw so much love in his eyes, she was almost overwhelmed. As much as he hated the world, he more than made up for it in love. And she thought she knew who the targets of that love were. There was so much love, even piling up all what he had to go through couldn't snuff out its light. Not even all the hurt, all the misery, all the loss he had lived could scratch that love.

She smiled as she blinked, coming face to face with Jaune once more. She yelped and stepped back, making him raise an eyebrow, and then blushed at having been caught staring.

"I-I'm sorry!"

Jaune just sighed and went to wake Torchwick.

 ** _Oh well, finally someone sees that comparing Jaune's hurt to Jaune's love is like comparing the Sun to VY Canis Majoris or even UY Scuti. You thought the boy was dark, Ruby? Girl, that boy probably loves more than all of Vale put together._**

 ** _Next chapter: Monsters from the Past. Oh well, Jaune did say that Watts could've filled the labs with monsters, right?_**

 ** _Until next time,_**

 ** _Khor Evik Vlakhavlakh_**

 ** _PS: if I have accidentally written something in Italian, please do tell me. I've been translating up until now so my brains might be a little scrambled._**


	10. Monsters from the Past

**_Hey guys! Another chapter of A Darker Shade of Gold, ahh... Also, just so you know, the title of this chapter does not refer to the few Grimm Jaune &Ruby&Roman fight in the lab, but to Jaune's memories. His memories are the "monsters from the past"._**

 ** _Anyway, I now officially hate my brother's voice. Whenever he opens his mouth a headache comes up, pulsing within my skull, and his voice is quickly becoming one of the most annoying sounds I've ever heard. Really, I told him to literally 'knock it off!' multiple times, why can't he just learn?! My pain and misery aside, here is the chapter..._**

 _The man walked up to him with a wide grin. "So you are the new…_ _ **subject**_ _, right? It's a pleasure to meet you. My name is Edward Ampere, but you can call me Doctor. Unfortunately, Dr Watts isn't here at the moment, so I'll be the one to show you around." The man clapped his shoulder as he guided him inside. "Now, son, what was your name again?"_

 _"You can call me Archangel, or just Angel," he replied wearily. "But seriously, couldn't you find a spot farther from my house?"_

 _"I'm afraid I did not have a say in the position of the lab, son," sadly smiled the man, patting his back. "But what I_ _ **can**_ _choose is what kind of drink I can offer you! Vacuan Whiskey is good?"_

 _"I'd like not to drink before an experiment," Jaune refused. "It might mess up the experiment."_

 _Ampere laughed loudly. "You should drink it, son. The experiment's not gonna be ruined by alcohol. But_ _ **you**_ _might get ruined by the experiment."_

"Jaune, are you with us?" Roman's voice tore him from his memories and he nodded grimly. "Good, I'd rather not have our tank with his head in the clouds when fighting your phantomatic 'monsters'."

"They are Grimm modified by Watts and Ampere into more powerful or just different types, and as long as we remain on the upper level we shouldn't encounter any. They follow Watts's orders so they never attacked me outside tests, but I doubt we'll get that mercy now," he explained quickly as the three of them made their way deeper into the house. "To be honest, if he's not here I don't think we are going to fight the big ones. Maybe a few Skitters or, if we're unlucky, a Shadow Phobia."

"How do you know those Grimm?" asked Roman, surprised, while Ruby just looked lost. "You didn't hit me as one to study Grimm…"

Jaune looked away. "Pack instinct. Know your packmates," he murmured darkly. "I know the Grimm because _I_ am Grimm. It's instinct."

Roman gaped at him for a second before grumbled and stomped ahead. "Not fair. I want to be a Grimm too. I want refunds for being human!"

Jaune laughed at the thief's poor attempt to make him feel better. Because he was trying to make him feel better, right? No way Roman really did want the taint of the Grimm in his body and soul. The thief was indeed the quite eccentric one, but even he had to have a limit, and that limit should've been well before 'becoming a Grimm'. Being a Grimm was _not_ fun. Then his eyes trailed over to Ruby and he inwardly sighed in resignation at her expression. It was halfway between pity and horror. He blinked and in a second, he was seeing someone else.

 _The woman knelt by the child, using a corner of her white cloak to wipe off the blood from his face. He looked like he had had ten rounds being used as a punching ball. And that was without counting the cuts that littered his face and what little skin she could see of his body. After she was done cleaning his face, she enveloped the poor thing in the warmest hug she could muster. "Oh my god, who did this?" she asked tilting his head upwards so to look into his eyes. They were so blue, so much bluer than anything else she had ever seen. They should've have been holding so much pain. "What's your name?"_

He shook his head just in time to hear Ruby's voice. "Jaune… what are Skitters? And what is a Shadow Phobia?" she asked in a small voice, a blush on her cheeks due to his absent staring. "I… I never studied them in Signal…"

Jaune shrugged. "Skitters are some kind of beetle Grimm. They are around as big as a large dog, the Alpha versions being maybe a bit bigger than a human on all four. They are pretty easy to deal with but Watts modified them to have acid spit," he explained quickly as they followed Torchwick downstairs. "The Shadow Phobia, on the other hand, are spider Grimm. Alpha ones can reach the size of the more famous Deathstalker, although it's not exactly as dangerous. Adults are around as big as a van. But if they can fit in here they'll probably be juvenile. Their venom is very powerful, and paralyse the victim. Aura can't even help against it, only against the bite itself. Watts just turned their legs into blades."

"S-Sound rough…" she commented nervously. "And you think we are going to encounter those?"

Jaune barked out a laugh that made her flinch. "Err… sorry, that wasn't meant to scare you," he apologized meekly. She seemed to ease up ever so slightly. "It's just… We're probably going to encounter a few of them, yes. Or, as I said, a Shadow Phobia. I doubt there'll still be many here, Watts would consider it a waste to leave subjects behind. If we encounter anything more, then it means _he_ is here as well."

"Is _he_ dangerous?" asked Ruby.

"Yes, highly so. I could defeat his apprentice but not him. He himself is not that strong, but he has special tricks up his sleeve and the Grimm obey him." He looked to the side. "Well, except for me, I guess." Feeling a hand on his arm, he turned to see Ruby's endless silver staring up at him.

"You are _not_ a Grimm," she stressed the negation, her voice holding a steel he hadn't thought could be within the small redhead. It reminded him of someone else.

 _"You did_ _ **not**_ _deserve this," she stressed the negation, her voice holding a steel she hadn't shown before. He looked at the woman with the white cape, afraid of her sudden change, but just as fast as her expression had darkened, it melted into softness and she embraced him tightly. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to scare you. You're too young to be facing any kind of hardship. I just wish I could help you."_

 _He shook his head hesitantly. "T-There's nothing y-you can do," he stammered, trying to break free. He shouldn't have been hugged someone who wasn't his sisters. "J-Just l-leave me alone!"_

 _The woman's embrace stopped him from escaping. She wasn't letting go. "No, you need help and I'll be damned if I just stood by and did nothing!" she replied forcefully, tightening the hug so much there wasn't any more space between them, and his face was pressed into her cape's shoulder. Then her voice took a pleading tone. "Please,_ _ **please**_ _, let me help you."_

 _He shook, just once, but it already was too much of a weakness. "W-Why do you w-want to help me?" he asked, trying to steady his voice as much as he could. He shouldn't be there, he should've already been home to his sisters. That was not right. "I-I can't pay. I-I don't have a-anything."_

 _The woman felt her heart break. "I want to help you because it's the right thing to do," she said, somehow pulling him even closer. Her rose scent washed over him, and for a second he felt safe. Then the second shattered and he flailed again, trying to get away. "Please, just allow me to unlock your Aura."_

 _He didn't stop kicking even as he replied. "I-I don't want an A-Aura! I-I don't w-want your help! L-Let me go! Let me go!"_

An explosion ahead tore him from his memories, and he rushed forwards, holding out a hand to prevent Ruby from bypassing him. As soon as they got to the bottom of the stairs, Roman grinned at them, cane over his shoulder and a crater at his feet. "Sorry, just a critter that wanted to die," he quipped without missing as he turned and shot another Skitter, destroying it. "There are indeed a few Grimm left, apparently."

Ruby blinked as she looked at yet another Skitter. She only had a few seconds before Jaune quite literally stomped it to death, but she didn't like the image she saw. The Skitters were indeed as large as dogs, with six black insect legs and two bulbous red eyes. The armour was mainly on the back, the white carapace having done nothing to stop Jaune's sheer strength from stomping it to mush. From the white-bone jaws dripped a grey liquid that she guessed was the acid Jaune had mentioned. She shivered in disgust, and thus she missed the detail of the Grimm essence trickling on the floor and then flowing up into Jaune's feet.

Roman, however, didn't miss it. "Blondie, what's that?" he asked, pointing at the black smoke. "Are you _absorbing_ it?"

Jaune looked down and frowned, kicking out to try and remove the stuff, but it just continued to seep into him. "I… I don't know. I'm not feeling any different, but there's no denying this stuff is _entering_ me," he growled as he bent and smacked it away with a hand. Vainly. In a few seconds, the Grimm essence had completely seeped into the boy. "Stupid thing…"

"Well, that settles it," sighed Roman, strolling ahead. "I'm lost as to what you can do. Super strength, regeneration, emotion tasting, Grimm knowledge and now Grimm absorption… give me a call when you find out something you _can't_ do, okay? 'Cause by now I'm really curious."

Jaune sighed as well and followed him. "I hate you," he stated plainly, even though it wasn't true. Not completely true, at least. While Roman hadn't Ruby's naivety and optimism as flaws, he was still an asshole and a criminal. Where Ruby annoyed him passively with her over-the-top innocence, Roman annoyed him actively with his snark and all-around being useless.

 _Bang_!

Jaune turned just in time to see Ruby lowering her weapon in rifle mode. Looking down, he saw the rapidly-disintegrating corpse of another Skitter. Roman grumbled at the noise, ignoring the noise _he_ had provoked earlier, and rounded on the girl with a scowl. "Imbecile, what are you doing?" he hissed aggressively, making her face fall. "You could've just told Jaune to look out. No showing off here, what-"

Jaune clasped a hand on Roman's mouth, stopping his rant, and gave Ruby a smile. It was crooked, lopsided, unsure and a bit rusty from the lack of use, but it was a true smile. "I knew I wasn't in the wrong when I decided to bring you along," he said quietly, his eyes softening a tiny bit. "Thanks for the save."

He turned around, missing Ruby's light blush as her stomach melted. Although he did feel a strange taste in his mouth, a very light scent of strawberry and chocolate. Shaking his head at the weird flavour, he continued after Roman.

"S-So… Jaune?" Ruby called out, jogging to keep up with his longer steps. "Ehm… I was wondering… which is your last name?"

Jaune laughed bitterly. "Ruby, I thought you knew better than this. You yourself told me I didn't fool you with my story," he chuckled with a sidelong glance. "Knowing my story, do you _really_ want to know who I was before everything went to hell?"

The girl shrank in both shame and sadness. "S-Sorry…" she apologized meekly. "I… I didn't think…"

"It's not a big deal. My last name never meant anything to me in the past ten years, I just threw it away," he snorted, amused, waving aside her apologies. "Besides, a last name is only a bunch of letters you are recognized as. Nothing more."

Ruby poked her fingers together shyly. "I was thinking… you seem so desperate… you look _starved_ , Jaune… what if my family adopted you after we save my mother?" she offered slowly, making his eyes go wide. "You could become Jaune Rose. We would take care of you. W-What do you say?"

 _"_ _ **For it is in compassion that we find harmony. Through it we become closer to our loved ones and able to help the world. Selfless at heart and unlimited by Death I release your soul, and may my harmony be the beacon that will guide thee.**_ _" The woman with the white cape tightened her hug one last time before she let go of him. Unlocking his Aura had taken a toll on her. Unbeknownst to them, a symbol on Jaune's chest began to glow, a pentacle with both the Double Crescents and the White Rose emblems in it, and the crescents seemed to be protectively embracing the rose._

 _He just stood there, shocked, as the white glow healed his injuries. That had to be magic, wounds didn't just disappear as if wiped away with a tissue. He looked at the woman in fright. "A-Are you a witch?"_

 _The woman laughed, the sound like tinkling of water drops. He took a step back. Why was she so happy? He couldn't even remember a time where he was that happy. Why was she happy? Had she done something to him? "Don't worry, little one, I am not a witch," she softly reassured him, care in her silver eyes. "Tell me, what is your name?"_

 _He steeled himself and avoided to flinch. "I-I am Jaune…"_

 _She smiled and hugged him again, making him go rigid. "There's nothing to worry about. My name is Summer, Summer Rose. Since you don't want me to help you, I unlocked your Aura so that next time it happens you will be protected by it. It seems you have a large reserve of it," she praised him, darkly wondering if Ozpin's theory about Aura levels was correct._ _ **'The more sufferance and misery the soul goes through, the stronger it comes out,'**_ _she remembered the man's words. She really didn't want to think what the poor boy had gone through already to have such an Aura reserve. "Jaune… would you want to come with me? I can adopt you. You don't have to go back to… to where you live. You can come with me. I have a daughter who's around the same age as you, you know? And one who is just one or two years younger. I'm sure they would adore you."_

 _He felt the woman sob, just once, before she ruled her compassion in again. "You could become Jaune Rose. We would take care of you. What do you say?"_

 _Jaune lowered his head. "I can't leave them," he murmured with tears stinging his eyes. "I can't."_

Jaune lowered his head. "I can't leave them," he murmured. "I can't."

Ruby looked at him curiously. "W-What?"

Jaune shook his head to clear it of the memories that were trying to overwhelm him, and distracted himself with looking back at Ruby. He took a deep breath, and shook his head again, this time to answer her question. "After how my 'meeting' with your sister went, I don't think I'd be welcome in your family, or even near it," he chuckled bitterly, turning again and speeding up his pace. "And it's too late now. I would only destroy your family from the inside. Maybe, had I accepted all those years ago, I would've become a more or less normal boy, but I couldn't leave my sisters behind. And now… now it's too late. If your family is anything like you, I would be the winter gale that makes all flowers wilt."

"Getting poetic now, Blondie?" Roman's obnoxious voice rang out just before another shot was heard. Then they heard him curse. "Fuck, there are more than I expected. I can't bring down the entire building on us, so a hand would be… less disliked."

"You could just say 'appreciated', you know?" snorted Jaune as he rushed forwards, Ruby by his side.

"Kid, that would ruin my style," grinned the thief as Ruby quickly sniped four Skitters while Jaune stomped one and ripped the other's head off, dropping the corpse to the ground. Again, the Grimm smoke trickled on the floor until it reached Jaune and was absorbed into him. "Still nothing different?"

"Nothing," confirmed Jaune, shrugging. "It doesn't matter. I'm Grimm anyway, a little bit more isn't gonna change me."

Roman grumbled something about the unfairness of it all, again, as he returned to scout ahead. "Damn these modern kids…"

Jaune smirked before his lips were pulled down into a grimace. His Aura was being damaged. _'Summer,'_ he grimaced. Quickly looking around if anyone was paying attention to him, he focused on his Semblance. It was true that a Soulmark would _always_ be protected… but there was a tiny bit he hadn't told Torchwick. His Semblance could _lend_ his _Aura_ to his marks. Normally, it only protected them, but if he focused… he could heal them. _'Try to hold on, or Ruby'll never get over your death.'_

/-/

"W-Winter?"

Weiss was quickly quieted as the older sister stormed into her dorm and closed the door behind her. From the beds, three people looked up. One was Yang Xiao Long, a curvy girl with voluminous blonde hair and lilac eyes that were now ruined by dark lines under them. Another was Cardin Winchester, a large boy with burnt brown-orange hair and piggy blue eyes. And the last was Russel Thrush, a lanky boy with a green mohawk and small blue eyes.

Out of the five people present in the room, four had blue eyes. But none held the shade Winter was looking for. "I am on 'vacation', as you might say. I'd like you to tell me about your encounter with the criminal Roman Torchwick and his associates."

"Associates my ass!" shouted Yang, jumping up. "Those two bastards kidnapped my sister!"

Weiss glared at Yang. "Shut up, Xiao Long. You should bear her respect, she is-"

"Who I am is not my concern at the moment, Weiss, and I am more than willing to withstand the barbaric speech of your teammate if it means learning more about this. You might've thought I was coming to see you, but I am on an… unofficial mission, so to speak." Winter's mind went back to a very specific night, and she fought the blush threatening to reach her cheeks. It wasn't the time to be embarrassed. "I need everything you can tell me about them."

"Me too," a new voice said. Given the way 'Xiao Long''s eyes widened, she knew it. Winter knew it too… unfortunately. She turned to shoot a frosty glare at Qrow Branwen, who entered the room without his usual grin. Something about him being serious felt intimidating. "Especially the other guy. I already know of Torchwick, and I think I know my niece well enough, but who is this guy?"

Yang's eyes turned as red as her uncle's. "That bastard was some kind of monster, I swear. He had very long blond hair, down to his back even. And he had blue eyes. Plus his face was full of small and medium scars, the same for his arms. I only know Ruby called him 'Jaune' when she spoke to him, and then I passed out," she growled out. "I think he was around my age. What now? Do you know anything about him?"

Qrow stared at her for a second before slumped against the wall and slid down to the floor, his action taking Yang and Winter alike by surprised. With a weary glare, he 'ushered' the two boys and the Ice Queen Jr out of the room, basically kicking them out of their own dorm. Once their footsteps had faded away, he turned back to Yang with a profound sigh. "It has to be Summer's little boy," he stated tiredly, his eyes closed. "He'd fit the description… I just hope I'm wrong, or we might be in trouble."

Yang's eyes turned back to lilac in confusion. "What?"

Qrow opened his eyes and for the first time, he _glared_ at Yang. "Don't you dare tell Ruby _anything_ of what I'm going to say, okay? I'm telling you only because it regards you, and the Ice Queen ain't gonna walk away. But _don't tell Ruby_."

"I-I won't," promised Yang, a little surprised by his tone.

"Good." The Huntsman slumped back down. "Years ago, must be eight at least, Summer went on the mission she never came back from. Sometime during the mission, she found a young boy around your age with 'unkempt blond hair, impossibly blue eyes, and an amount of scars no child should ever bear'. Those were Summer's words during her call. She tried to approach him but he was wary and tried to flee. She unlocked his Aura. She says he had much of it, and that it's possibly related to the amount of misery he had lived. She introduced herself. He introduced himself as 'Jaune'. She offered to adopt him, but he refused because 'he couldn't leave _them_ ', whoever _them_ were."

Qrow took a deep swig from his flask. "After she… after she died, I tried to do some research. Found out something, I think. If my guess is right that boy was Jaune Arc, the only son of John Arc and Jude Silver. Mrs Arc died ten years ago in a Bullhead crash, and Mr Arc turned to alcohol. Apparently, it fell upon young Jaune Arc to take care of the entire family, and he had seven sisters." He moved to drink again, but then he grimaced and put his flask away. "But six months ago, John Arc's remains were found in his very house. With the ferocity behind that murder we thought it had been a Grimm… but now I'm not so sure any more. Jaune Arc disappeared alongside all his sisters. Then, just a week or so ago, the seven Arc girls showed up in Signal, and even through their ages range from twelve to sixteen, all of them entered Signal's first year. Of the Arc heir, nothing. It can't be a coincidence, but the gods only know how much I wish for it to be…"

Yang's eyes turned red again as she stood up. "Well then, it's time for me to crack some Arc skulls," she growled. "Those bitches _have_ to know where their fucking brother is. I'm gonna beat them until they fucking tell me everything they know about him, down to how many times a day he uses the restroom!"

Qrow did nothing to stop her, but Winter's Glyphs hurled her against the wall as icy eyes glared cold daggers at her. "You shall _not_ even _meet_ with the Arc daughters," she whispered frostily, perfectly heard by the blonde girl. Qrow stood up, placing a hand on his weapon. "One, because if you harm them and then you go after Jaune, he _will_ kill you. Two, they are innocent. And three, your barbaric brutality is _not_ going to work. Leave this to people who have _experience_ hunting down people. You are all but a child who thinks she can take on the world-"

 _"Once, I believe in karma and in justice of the world. Now I know it's a pile of crap people feed their children to keep them blind to the real world until the very end. Once, I believed I could take on the world. No one can take on the world. The world crushes everyone and everything. All we can do is to try and find some shards of happiness to cling to. Shards is all the world has ever given me…'_

"-but you will soon learn that the world doesn't give a damn about what you think. If you don't start using that brain of yours, you will find yourself completely unprepared for the true world. Because the real world is _cold_. The real world is _unfair_. The real world is _predatory_. The real world is _cruel_. The real world just wants to see how much you can take before you break!" Winter finally released the blonde from her Glyphs and stormed out of the room.

With a final look, Qrow followed her. "I fear you ain't gonna learn that lesson until you find out first-hand…" He stopped at the door and glanced back with a sigh. "Let's just hope you survive that revelation… not many do."

 ** _Ouch, Yang's lucky Winter stopped her, because it's true that Jaune would literally KILL her if she dared hurt his sisters. And that would kind of ruin the whole Lancaster element of this story, wouldn't it? Anyway, I don't really have much to say... just that unfortunately it's true, the world is not fair nor good. My view is not as extreme as Jaune's... but close. So yeah, hold on tight onto whatever shards of happiness you can find, 'cause there is no telling whether you'll find more._**

 ** _Also, as you might've noticed, while Jaune is still completely not interested in Ruby, she is instead starting to feel something. Pity, compassion, attraction, desire for friendship or whatnot, she can't say yet, but Jaune is starting to make her feel something._**

 ** _Next chapter: A Lead. Wow, finally something, huh?_**

 ** _Until next time,_**

 ** _Khor Evik Vlakhavlakh_**


	11. A Lead

**_And I am ALIVE! Yes, it's been a long time since I last updated this. Well... not really, around three weeks, but anyway! I posted two new stories (first chapters only), and I updated Dust and Death, Remnants of Dimensions, An Extension of the Soul, and Viewing Jaune Arc, the Elemental Swordsman before I finally got to this. Also, these last two days I'm feeling pretty under the weather, my little brother is sick so at night he has trouble sleeping and guess what? If he has trouble, my parents can't sleep. As such, I have to take care of him during the day, since my twin is pretty much just locked in his room._**

 ** _Anyway! Let's move from this boring topic. As you can see I have a new cover image for this. I drew it myself. It's the symbol Jaune and Summer both have on their chests that marks their connection by Soulbond (my name for Jaune's Semblance in this). The white circle is Jaune's Aura, and in the outer circles you can see the letters (read in counter-clockwise order from the Arc symbol) of the words 'elyk dv'iikh njar'kyu', that means 'love protection healing'. And 'love' is not strictly romantic love, just general love. The language is one I invented myself, so don't bother trying to translate it. I invented the letters too. And of course there's my hand-drawn symbol, the Dragon Rose, in the top-right corner. Hope you like the new cover! If not... well, at least I tried._**

 ** _And now, onto the chapter!_**

The woman woke up and raised her head as footsteps echoed in the empty corridor before her cell. Her dull silver eyes widened in slight surprise as she noticed that Adam, the bull Faunus in the cell next to her, was missing. Had they done something else to him? Where they coming to get her for the next experiment? How long would the White Glow last this time?

Slowly, she crawled in the shadows of her cell, trying to hide her starvation-weakened body as Sadist approached. Her unhealthily-gaunt arms lacked the strength to really push her up, the last experiment having taken its toll on her, an experiment the White Glow hadn't been able to protect her from. The White Glow couldn't protect her from everything.

As the footsteps neared, two people appeared before her cell, and the woman tried to press herself even more against the wall. Maybe Sadist wouldn't see her, or maybe he wouldn't care enough to bring her to his next experiment. Or maybe he would see how weak she was and he would leave her there, not willing to lose his test subject. Maybe she would be left in her cell for some more, and the White Glow would return. Maybe-

"Hello there, sweetie, don't think I haven't seen you." The woman froze in abject terror as Sadist chuckled and clanged his favourite toy, an electric baton, against the bars of her cell. "But alas, using you now would probably lead to you dying, and I cannot lose half my toys just because I wasn't careful, huh?" Another chuckle followed the first, and the woman shivered, silently begging for the White Glow to appear and save her.

The door of her cell was opened, and Sadist placed a tray with some water and food down on the floor. "Here, you need to eat if I want to continue my tests," he said with fake care, sliding the tray toward her. The woman eyed the tray, and then the man. She knew what would've happened had she dared to try and take the food before the man had exited the door. Her stomach hurt, reminding her how much she needed that food. Like always, Sadist waited for a couple of minutes before he snorted, amused by her self-preservation, and exited the door.

No sooner that he had locked it again, the woman crawled toward the tray as fast as her weak limbs could carry her. She first drank the water, glacially cold but still drinkable. She shivered with every gulp, but she didn't stop. The White Glow would heal her if she caught a cold because of that water. Then she moved to the food, tearing into it. Sadist liked to give them foods like meat and pasta, but cold and stale, just to remind them of the meals they were used to have. It wasn't much, and it was all cold, but it was enough to keep her alive and able to undergo experiments. Between starvation and the experiments, she knew which one was worse, but her body just wouldn't allow her to famish herself.

From the cell beside her, a voice caught her attention. "You tried to flee again?"

The woman stopped eating for a second before resuming at a much slower pace. Glancing to the side, she noticed the new wound on Adam's arm. Sadist didn't like precise needles much, he preferred cutting the flesh open to insert the syringe straight into the vein. The bull Faunus's red-brown hair was somehow still around as short as it was when he had first been thrown in there, six or so weeks before. Sadist kept them clean and tidy, even though both were malnourished. Adam showed next to no signs of it, having been there for a short while, but she looked starved. "Yes."

The man snorted as he laid on his couch. To be honest, their accommodations weren't too uncomfortable, as Sadist preferred them to be if not healthy, at least alive during the experiments. The couch wasn't by any mean a bed, but it wasn't even a plank of wood or metal. It had some semblance of a mattress over it, a pillow that was thinner than her, and a light blanket. Adam examined his new cut before huffing and lying down. "You know that's just stupid, Summer," he reprimanded her. "They will always capture you. And when they do, it gets even worse for you."

The woman, Summer, delayed her reply for as long as she could, eating all her food before she finally turned to the man. "I did it, Adam," she croaked hoarsely. "I… I actually reached a nearby village. Orlén, the same one I passed by before I was captured. And I slept at an inn, for a night. They fed me and housed me for free in pity. Maybe next time-"

"Don't be stupid, Summer," snapped Adam, not even raising his head from his pillow. "You know what they're doing. They always allow you to go a tiny little further, just to fuel your hope, before they crush you again. And every time you try, you get punished worse and worse. You told me you've been trying for the last eight or so _years_ to escape, and you never succeeded. Come on, you should see the obvious truth."

"I do."

"Then why do you continue?!" exclaimed the Faunus, exasperated. "I tried. Three times. One was a test. The second was an actual attempt. The third was the 'perfected' plan. They always caught me easily. For fuck's sake they control _Grimm!_ The fucking bastard Grimm that have around _all_ of Remnant save for some specks on the map! There's no hope of escaping! We have no weapon, and our Auras are daily mowed down. Well, mine is. You have your Aura-binding collar."

The woman felt a twinge of anger at the word, her fingers reaching up to touch the object. Cold had told Sadist to bind her Aura since they couldn't bind the White Glow, but it had been Sadist's idea to write 'Summer – Propriety of Edward Ampere' on it, as if she were a dog or a cat. As if he _owned_ her. "I know."

"Then why?" asked Adam. "Why the hell do you flee every week?"

"I want to see outside," whispered the woman, slinking back in her corner. "I regain hope every time I see outside. Soon there'll be the snow, I want to see the snow. In the last three years it didn't snow much. The leaves are red and brown and golden and the sun still warms even in the middle of October. T-There's a road outside the labs, it runs sided by large trees for a few miles, and it leads to the village. It's all so colourful and alive, I want to see it. Not fleeing might keep me healthier but I don't care. I lost all hope of getting out of here long ago, I don't care if I die any more. To everyone else, I'm already dead. I just want to keep remembering how it is outside."

Adam grumbled in slight agreement. "You are a sentimentalist and a fool, but your reasoning isn't strictly wrong."

The two fell silent for a short while. Summer brushed her red-tipped black hair from her eyes and looked down at her fist. Shaking slightly, she slowly thumped the ground, hard enough to hurt, leaving a small gap between each hit. Short, long long, short. Short, long, short short. Short. Short short short. Short. She waited a second, but then the familiar White Glow appeared and she felt warmth. Basking in it, Summer smiled as she felt the White Glow give her strength and hope. Even if she couldn't see from behind her closed eyes, she knew it was healing any injury she had from the earlier punishment.

Adam scoffed. "Screw your white glow."

"If it was a person, I'd gladly do it," she retorted, her sass coming back little by little as the White Glow helped her. Adam was just envious, she knew that. And to be honest, he had every right to. "But unfortunately it isn't. At the moment I would really like to have someone as kind and caring as the White Glow to be here with me. You aren't exactly sociable."

"Well, maybe I'd be a little more _sociable_ if I weren't locked in a fucking lab with a fucking sadistic bastard as 'mad doctor', or if I at least had some magic-y thing that protects me full-time and heals me on request," Adam snapped back irritably. "That kind of pisses me off, especially since you don't even have any _reason_ to have that. You just have that weird white-golden glyph-y symbol on your chest, and puff! You get super protection. So _forgive me_ if I'm not in the best of moods."

 _'You're never in the best of moods,'_ Summer thought sarcastically, but she kept the comment to herself. Hopefully, the White Glow would remain for a while. She already felt sleepy in its arms. It was warm. It was kind. It cared for her. _'Thank you for existing, White Glow.'_

/-/

 _Bang_.

 _Boom_.

"And then you blame _Ruby_ for the noise her rifle makes?" Jaune snorted and kicked aside a pile of ashes that had once been a desk. Roman had cannoned it and the Skitter crawling on it in just one hit. "Is your second name 'Hypocrisy', by any mean?"

"Very funny, Blondie," grumbled the thief, looking at the palm-sized hole burned in his suit. "Shit, those things really have acid spittle, it ruined by clothes!"

"I told you to be careful with those," shrugged Jaune, whose clothes were in a far worse condition than just holed by acid. He didn't even turn when Ruby sniped another Skitter crawling on the wall just behind him. Looking down, he sighed as he saw the essence of the four Skitters slide on the floor, heading for him. "Great. More Grimm stuff. At least we're here now."

The three of them looking around, taking in the extremely messy room they were in. Papers and folders lay scattered on the desks, more or less just like Jaune remembered it. For each table there was a chair, some occupied by piles of papers, and the floor was covered by a thin layer of dust. Pens, pencils, and all sorts of drawing tools were strewn on the desks.

Jaune picked up a sheet and made a disgusted noise. "Studies on possible Grimm reproduction," he summed up for the others, throwing the sheet aside. "That's sick even for their standards."

"But Grimm don't have reproductive organs," Roman pointed out as he examined another desk, moving aside all papers that seemed to be just drawings or about Grimm. "How would that work?"

"Complex and simple. Complex to do, simple to tell," explained Jaune, searching in the folders. "Grimm might not have them, but people do. And if they managed to do what they did with me, I have little doubts they would try to inject human DNA into Grimm to try and make them grow genitalia."

Roman snickered at the mental image of an Ursa with an Ursa-sized cock between its legs. _'Bye bye running in the wilds, now you're hindered. You'd soon learn not to go strolling in the woods, I'm pretty sure being hit by trees and branches in the crotch hurts like hell,'_ he thought to himself. "Well, if they vary in size depending on the size of the Grimm, I'm pretty sure many women would be elated to go fuck themselves on some Grimm meat, if you catch my drift."

Jaune almost gagged at that. "Roman, that's as sick as Watts's experiments!" he basically shouted at the crook, who just laughed. "Asshole," he grumbled as he returned to the papers, trying to erase the mental image.

"W-What is this?" Ruby asked, holding up a paper with a few sketches of Grimm and notes.

Jaune snatched it from her and pushed her away. "Unless you've decided to shed your naivety and trust in the world in the last five seconds, I suggest you not to search these papers. Keep an eye out for any Grimm and we're good."

"But-"

"Ruby, would you really like to be casually searching through folders about machinery and suddenly finding yourself with a photo of a human corpse whose owner has been cut to pieces and its insides are strewn all over the place?" asked the boy, crossing his arms over his chest. "Or maybe find a picture of your mother, in such a sorry state she'd be _begging_ for death?"

All colour drained from Ruby's face, and tears began to gather in her eyes as she forcefully pushed him aside to continue searching the papers. "I-It's faster t-this way," she replied weakly. "I don't want to waste time."

Jaune looked at her for a second before sighing and shaking his head. "Whatever. Come to me if tonight you have nightmares," he told her before freezing. "Err… sorry, I'm used to my sisters, I meant ' _don't_ come crying to me if tonight you have nightmares.'."

Roman barked out a laugh at his expense as Ruby blushed. "And then you call _me_ out for my indecency? Is your second name 'Hypocrisy', by any mean?"

"Shut up," grumbled Jaune as he pushed past the thief to continue with his search. "Yours was indecency, mine was just a slip of the tongue."

"A slip of the tongue ain't a slip of the mind," quipped the man, but he let the boy off the hook for the time being. They surely didn't need any more tension within their little ragtag group. "Anyone found anything?"

"Not yet," replied Ruby, turning to fire at yet another Skitter. Three more appeared, but a single blast from Roman's cane was enough to take care of them. Again, their smoke flowed toward Jaune. "Jaune?"

"Nothing here, let's search other desks – damn!" Jaune pulled his hand away when a Skitter hiding in the shadows tried to spit acid at it. With a growl, he grabbed the Skitter and hurled it against the wall, killing it. "Damn this insects, they aren't even dangerous, just damn annoying!"

"Looks who's talking, the one who did less," snorted Roman as everyone changed desk. "I get you don't have a ranged weapon but you _could_ not leave all the Grimm to me and Red."

"I have lots of Aura, not lots of training. Ruby seems basically as skilled as you are, if not more so, and you theoretically should be a Huntsman. I'm just a human Grimm with no training," retorted the boy as he began searching in another pile.

"You are n-"

"I know, Ruby, I know, I am not a Grimm," huffed Jaune, waving her off with his left hand while he knocked a lamp off the table with his right. "It doesn't matter. This is the only room I remember seeing with papers and folders in it, so I'm guessing that if we don't find anything here, we could go. Give a once-over to all papers, even those that seem uninteresting."

"Why? That's a waste of time, I only look for what is interesting," grinned Roman, victoriously holding up a piece of paper. "Look what I have here~ It appears to be… wow!" He mock-gasped and brought a hand to his chest. "It appears a letter from Dr W. to a certain Dr A.! What could it possibly be?"

Jaune grunted and snatched the paper from the thief's hands. "Very funny, imbecile. Watts and Ampere, his apprentice. Let's hope the boss isn't home when we get there. I'd hate to face Watts." He quickly read the paper out loud, skipping the unimportant parts. "Very well, that's what it says: _'Edward,'_ and that's the apprentice's first name, _'you are to join me at lab 4-V by October the seventh. No delays shall be allowed. I have business to attend with some associates of mine, apparently one of them messed up. You can guess which one. I knew she was going to mess up and fail soon, she has never been fit for leadership. After all,'_ and here Watts goes on a tirade on how this associate of his got blown up in her own storehouse and how she's an utter imbecile, typical for him to be angry at her. Even when I was here, barely a day, I still caught him grumbling about her. And I'm guessing she's this 'boss' Roman told us about." Jaune stared dryly at the crook. "Unless you blew up any other storehouses in Vale before leaving."

"I didn't," he assured them with a smug smirk. "Go on."

"Well, as I said there's this tirade. Then: _'You will find your instructions recorded in the main computer. The bull Faunus can die in the experiments, he's not important, but do keep the silver eyed one alive. I know you have the habit to overdo without looking at the instructions first, Edward. They are to be fed once a day, and in case they get sick, they'll have to be cured. Some Healing Dust should be enough, and it's not that hard to find on the market. One final advice, if one of the citizens tells you our lab is a 'maison hantée', they mean it's a haunted house, not 'my son has it', and if they say 'c'est une belle journée', they are not meaning 'you have a girl's journal'. I know you have trouble understanding dialects and ancient languages. They mean 'it's a nice day'.'_." Jaune stopped reading and allowed Roman's roaring laughter to die down. "I can't believe he actually had to write that. But we're lucky, I think I know where the lab is."

Ruby appeared beside him in a flurry of rose petals. "Really? We must go! Where?"

Jaune's eyes darkened. "Á la maison hantée, ma petite rose," he replied fluently, pocketing the note. "It's time I go home. To Orlén."

/-/

As his back connected hard with the wall, Hei 'Junior' Xiong started to seriously doubt his choice of career. He grunted in pain as he stared at the dull red eyes of his aggressor. It wasn't the busty blonde this time, but some scarecrowish-looking guy with dark hair and red eyes, and a freakingly huge sword on his back. Behind him Junior could see a white-haired beauty with icy blue eyes, who had just taken care of the twins and the henchmen. Returning to attention to the man who was easily holding him a foot off the ground, Junior gritted his teeth and prepared himself for the imminent blow.

A blow that didn't come. Cracking one eye open, he was surprised when the man just unceremoniously dropped him to the floor, and even kicked him once to wake him up. "Stand up, Pissy Pants, I ain't gonna kill ya. Not right now, at least."

Groaning, the larger man pulled himself from the ground and staggered over to his bar counter, pouring himself some Atlasian vodka. He knew he was probably going to need it, and soon. "Fine, okay, you won, that much is clear. So, _Qrow Branwen_ , what do you want?"

The man snatched his glass of vodka and downed it in one gulp. Damn, he had to have some serious endurance to do that without choking his heart up. "I see you ain't as stupid as you look. Good, that makes my job easier. And I'm guessing you know Ice Queen over there, don't ya?" Junior nodded, and the man laughed mockingly. "What a smart bartender. As for what I want, it's information. Big stuff and small stuff. I want to know everything you can give me on Roman Torchwick and his new blond associate."

Junior hesitated and took out another glass, filling up both containers with clear liquid. "You're asking me to play with fire, Branwen. Blondie Mark II wouldn't be a problem, but I don't like the idea of angering Roman," he said slowly as both men drank their alcohol. "You know how it is. I tell you, you find him, he escapes you, and I have Roman Torchwick on my ass because of what I told you. I'm more afraid of him than I am of you, Branwen. As hardass as you act, you still have to uphold the laws, he doesn't."

Winter stormed over and slammed a hand on the counter. "You filthy scum, I can have this miserable business of yours shut down with a single call," she threatened. "Give us what we want to know, or-"

"Shut your trap, Ice Queen." Qrow waved her off with his free hand. "Forgive her, she's pretty new to the underworld."

Junior cocked an eyebrow. "I see…"

The Huntsman downed the rest of his glass and gestured for a refill. "Okay, I'll be frank. We knocked your henchmen out but you have us by the throat. I cannot waste time. How does twenty thousands Lien sound?"

The bartender laughed. "Twenty grands? Are you crazy? That's not going to make me spill anything, man."

"Make those a hundred," growled Winter, slamming several white Lien cards on the table. Junior eyed the pile.

"Make those two hundreds," added a new, sensual voice as a small bag full of white Lien cards landed on the counter. "But count me in both for the information, and the hunt. I have a score to settle with Torchwick. Maybe we could join forces to find him."

Qrow and Winter turned to look at the three newcomers. The first was a tall woman with burning-orange eyes and dyed crimson hair. He couldn't really see the hair's natural colour, so she had to have dyed it either that day or the day before. She wore a form-fitting black dress and left nothing to imagination, something Qrow really appreciated, with a very low cut and a short skirt that allowed him to admire her bare legs up to mid-thigh. She was also wearing high black heels, that just made her curves move more as she walked, again something Qrow didn't mind in the slightest. What he noticed, however, was the black glove on her right hand, something not mirrored on her left, and the carefully covered in make up burn marks all over the right side of her face. They looked kinda recent.

Beside her there was a guy with dark red dyed hair and black eyes, wearing some black-and-crimson themed outfit with jacket and pants. He also had heavy black combat boots that seemed to be reinforced with steel, given how loud they were. Qrow narrowed his eyes as he noticed how he seemed to be putting slightly less weight on his left leg, for some reason. Maybe he had been with the woman when she had gotten those burn marks? He also seemed to wince a little every time he moved his back. Yeah, definitely something had happened to the two of them.

The third was instead devoid of any sign of injury. She was a small lolita-sized woman with bicoloured pink-brown hair, and equally dichromatic brown and pink eyes. She wore dark grey pants with a loose belt 'keeping' them up, showing off some smooth skin at her hips. She also wore a black corset under a white tailcoat jacket with a low cut just like the first woman's. Qrow narrowed his eyes as he noticed her arrogant smirk. That was surely not some good-doer chick.

The first woman limped slightly as she reached the counter with her two companions in tow. She leaned her elbows on the wood, wincing ever-so-slightly as she carefully laid her left one on the hard surface, and smiled provokingly at Junior and Qrow, giving them a good long look at her cleavage.

Junior stared, a little intimidated but happy for the glimpse, but Qrow was an experienced Huntsman. He did stare, that much was confirmed by Winter's huff behind him, but a nice set of tits weren't going to distract him. "So, bombshell, who are you? You must've some serious business with Torchwick if you're willing to pay that much," he noted, gesturing to the bag of Lien. The woman's eyes narrowed at the mention of Torchwick's name. "Let's start with the basics, I'm Qrow, and my companion here is Winter. She's as cold as her name usually, she only warms up in bed."

"Pig!" exclaimed Winter, slapping him hard on the head. Qrow barely winced, but Cinder grinned.

"Oh? You seem like an interesting man, Mr Qrow," she purred seductively. While the Huntsman didn't buy her her game, he did like the attention.

"Just Qrow, please, 'Mr' makes me feel old," he replied nonchalantly, ignoring Winter's 'you are old' in the background. "So, what's your name, bombshell?"

"You can call me Ashley, charmer," giggled the woman, but a glint in her eyes told him she was definitely not really giggling. "My companions are Hygin, the male, and Litan, the girl."

Qrow smiled and nodded in acknowledgement at both, knowing fully well he had just been fed false names. So, they had a reason to stay under the radar. Understandable, but at the same time it made him suspicious. However, for the time being, he figured he could work with some possible criminals, if it meant getting his niece back. Turning to Junior, he grinned. "So, Big J, do you have any interesting news for us?"

Junior tore his eyes from 'Ashley's cleavage and stared at him, puzzled. "Huh?"

"Information about Roman Torchwick, Junior, is what we want," repeated the woman, tracing her fingers along his arm. Behind her, her male companion 'Hygin' and Winter exchanged a glance and scoffed in unison, shaking their heads. The girl, 'Litan', didn't utter a sound, but she did appear to be giggling behind her hand. Junior gazed at 'Ashley's hand for a few seconds before shaking himself and nodding hesitantly. "Very good, Junior. I'm happy to see you are willing to cooperate. I'd like you to tell me everything you know about Roman Torchwick. Where he is, did he visit your pub recently and most important, what is he doing?"

Qrow slammed his glass down on the counter. "I know he came here, and he had a blond boy with blue eyes and a short girl with red-tipped black hair with him. I'm pretty sure you know something about it, so now spill," he added, pushing all the money toward Junior before adding a few more on top. "Those are for the vodka. And now, let's talk business."

 ** _Uh-oh..._**

 ** _So, reason why I chose those nicknames. "Ashley" because of the 'Ash' part, to replace 'Cinder'. "Hygin" because 'Hg' is the scientific name of hydrargyrum, also called 'mercury'. And "Litan" because 'Neo' is short for 'Neopolitan', so I cut a different section. And yes, Junior's pretty much an idiot, but we all saw that in the Yellow Trailer, right? (I actually haven't seen it, but I've read enough stories to know what it contains)_**

 ** _Moving on... I got nothing else to say. Review or PM me if you have doubts or questions that I didn't explain. Otherwise, review if you liked or if you hated, both help me improve my work._**

 ** _Until next time,_**

 ** _Khor Evik Vlakhavlakh_**


	12. Blood Debt

**_And here we are. Yesterday was a stressful day, today will probably be one too, but here we are. Please, I'll explain everything at the end._**

Adam Taurus collapsed on the bed with a tired sigh, exhausted by his training. No experiment today, but he had to keep himself in fighting shape. Or, well, kind of in fighting shape. Ampere didn't feed them enough to keep them in fighting shape, Summer was proof of that. The woman was a Huntress… yet she wouldn't have been able to defeat a single Beowolf in the condition she was kept.

Ampere was a bastard, sure, but Adam knew there was more to the unnecessary cruelty and the malnutrition. It wasn't just for the fun of it, despite the man taking pleasure in bringing pain, it was necessary. Not to break his spirits, Summer had been in that lab for eight years and still hadn't given up, but to keep them from doing anything. Keep them weak and keep them desperate was the way. It went to show that he had still much to learn in the field of torture. At first he wanted to keep it in mind for when he returned to the White Fang, maybe a few new ideas to try out on the human prisoners. But then…

Adam Taurus still hated humans, no doubts about that. But there was something else. Ampere was the finest example of the humans he wanted to destroy, but in a way Ampere was perfectly without discrimination. He did see humans and Faunus as equals… too bad he saw both as toys for experiments. He didn't want to take inspiration by someone like Ampere for his own prisoners. Adam suspected the man to be less than sane, and he secretly agreed with Summer's name for him, Sadist. Adam didn't want to become like that human.

The thought of Summer's nicknaming habit made him snort in annoyance and deviate from that train of thoughts. He hadn't been there for long enough to get one, and he wished to never get one… who was he trying to convince, he already had one, one he liked even less than the others. White Glow, Cold, Sadist… one was some weird thing that kept appearing every time she was hurt or was about to be harmed, the other two had names of their own. Yet Summer nicknamed them all.

 _"I give them nicknames because names should bear the essence of their owners. So, Cold and Sadist, that's who and what they are,"_ had been Summer's simplistic explanation. She had nicknamed him too, Forfeit of all things, because he had given up the hope of ever escaping those labs. He had been tempted to nickname her Bitch in return, but she wouldn't fit the name, so he had opted to wait until he could come up with a decent nickname. After all, how hard could it be?

"Wilted? Wilting?" he mumbled to himself before shaking his head. No that was just stupid. 'Glowing' was another option but again he didn't like it. Hearing her move in the cell beside his, he chased those thoughts out of his mind and glanced at her. "Not dead yet?"

"Nope," came the semi-cheerful reply.

"Let me guess, you just glowed, right?" huffed Taurus, forcing himself to prop his head up to look at her. As expected, she looked a bit better than earlier. Not by much, and she still looked quite miserable, but she had some energies back. "Sometimes I hate you."

"Aww, come on, don't be like that. Weren't you the one who went on and on about how Faunus are way better than humans and how you would never bend to the will of a human like Sadist?" Summer teased him as she stretched slightly and yawned. "And yet you've given up while I still haven't, and I'm human. Does that mean you were wrong?"

 _'Nuisance could be a good nickname… no, it's not fitting enough, she's more than a simple nuisance,'_ Adam thought grimly. "I am not. I am just proving that Faunus are the better race in intelligence as well. You've been here for eight years, and you still haven't realized it's impossible to flee. I realized it a week ago. Now who's the smartest?"

"I am." Summer laughed, but she was interrupted by a hacking cough, spitting out some blood. "Damn, last punishment must've been worse than I thought. The White Glow is not helping…"

"Just the fact you're able to move says the 'White Glow' is already working overtime with you," snorted Taurus, recalling what the punishment had been. "I'm pretty sure that somewhere, some god must be sweating bullets for the effort of keeping up the miracle."

"At least I have a god willing to help me," Summer managed a little sass even when coughing.

"I don't believe in any god," retorted the man. "That was just a joke. If the gods existed, Remnant wouldn't be the shithole it is. Or at least it would be less of a shithole. Your White Glow must have some sort of logical explanation. Maybe someone's Semblance."

"I know."

"You know, you know, but then how comes I am the one who has to be the voice of reason between the two?" growled Taurus. He immediately regretted it as his head began to pulse, and he grabbed his hair to stop the headache from getting worse. "You know. Yes, I know you know. Being a little more specific is not gonna kill you, either."

"Well…" Summer coughed up more blood. "If you put it like that, then I don't know."

"It's not that hard, someone must be helping you, and if they're helping you then you must know them." The man raised an eyebrow as Summer spat out the last bit of blood and cleaned her mouth with her sleeve. "Charming… So you know someone must be helping you, how hard can it be for you to remember who could be? After all, Semblances are pretty unique. And what about that symbol on your chest?"

Summer shrugged weakly. "It must be connected but I can't exactly remember… this lab isn't the perfect place for a journey down the memory lane," she replied meekly, touching said symbol through her clothing. "Although I am pretty sure I would remember such a kind person."

"Huh?"

"Aura is the manifestation of our soul, and our Semblance is how our Aura express itself in this world. Our Semblances are related to our souls, thus." Adam gave a grunt of semi-agreement. "If the White Glow is really someone's Semblance, then its owner must be extremely selfless."

Adam scoffed. "Yeah, sure. This is not a fairytale, it's-ugh." He stopped and held his head between his hands for a second, until the pulsing pain stopped. "This is a cruel world. And a cruel world has cruel inhabitants. Why do you think the White Fang was born? Humans oppressed Faunus to the point Faunus fought back. And you think someone living in this world would be selfless enough to have a protective Semblance? All the Semblances I've seen fall in two categories, Summer. Offensive, and plain weird. Or, at best, self-defensive."

"Mine isn't."

"You never told me yours," retorted Taurus.

She shrugged again. "And I'm not gonna tell you anytime soon." Glancing at him, she laughed at the broody sulk. "Fine, fine. My Semblance works with groups. All my allies and I can use each other's Semblances. Like, you could use the Semblances of everyone else plus yours, and everyone could use yours as well. At Beacon, my team and I kicked everyone's asses with that."

She then looked at her cell's floor and her smirk fell, her mind returning to their previous subject. "I wonder what is White Glow's owner doing at the moment. Does he even know he's helping me?"

"Since you haven't been rescued, and he hasn't been captured yet, I'd say he's unaware," snorted Adam. "Besides, who would be crazy enough to even try and storm this labs? Only an utter idiot."

/-/

"We were lucky we met those three."

Qrow snorted in annoyance at Winter's weak attempt at trying to get him to express his opinion. Really, the girl was never happy with what he told her. Sure, he kept some details to himself, but only because they weren't important for their mission. He didn't want to baby-sit a distracted Winter Schnee, Oum only knew what she would do if she knew those three had been criminals. Or well, people who didn't want to use their true names. Still not people Winter would've liked to work with. Qrow had been working in the field for two decades, he knew sometimes criminal allies were more useful than legal ones. The girl didn't know any of that.

Those three were suspicious, and probably dangerous. Handling the interactions they would have with them was something that would require subtlety, and Winter had more or less the same view as Ironwood's on the matter. Bring in the army. She was about as apt for subtlety as he was for sobriety. Very few people would've been less subtle.

"Sure."

"You don't seem very convinced."

"Well, excuse me for trying to focus on the matter at hand, Ice Queen," he retorted harshly. Their partnership was _not_ gonna end well. It was gonna end 'his scythe stuck in her back' not well. Why had he agreed again? Oh right, she was hot. Meh, he was starting to regret his choice. "Yeah, those three paid for us, basically. Yes, I'm curious about them. No, I'm not gonna change my mission from 'find Ruby' to 'apprehend those three and _then_ find Ruby'. Yes, I do not trust them, honestly I don't trust you either. Yes, we have been lucky, but that actually depends on how you define 'luck'. Because in my opinion we've been pretty damn unlucky."

"Wh-"

"Because, Ice Queen, I know how to work in this field, you don't, so listen to me. We could've done this by ourselves. Dragging others in this was a bad idea, but I couldn't refuse an offer like that without appearing suspicious. I hoped they would have some more info for us but apparently they were clueless about Torchwick." Qrow spat to the side, annoyed as hell. "Second, they were obviously combat trained. Limping aside, they moved like warriors, all of them. There is a difference between grace and combat grace. And third, they were searching for Torchwick. Roman Torchwick, Vale's most wanted, criminal mastermind and dangerous rogue Huntsman."

Winter furrowed her brow before realization dawned on her face. "You are worried they might not be good people."

Qrow laughed, and laughed, and laughed. Harshly. Mockingly. It was probably offensive, too, but he didn't care. Good people. _Good people_. Oh, for all her strictness and rules, Winter was still so adorably _naive_. If they were lucky, those three were mercenaries hired to capture or kill Torchwick. If they weren't, those were rogue Hunters that Torchwick had pissed off, somehow. He had the inkling that the two's injuries and the explosion of that warehouse a few days before were connected. Maybe they were even Torchwick's associates, who he betrayed by running away. In any case, those three were trouble. Big trouble. And they had walked straight into it. However, they weren't _just_ trouble…

Qrow was a Huntsman. A damn good Huntsman, too. He wasn't one to be fooled like an idiot. Those three were dangerous. He also somewhat recalled seeing people similar to 'Ashley' and 'Hygin' before. And their appearance was just the final event of a series that had been going on recently. He wasn't stupid.

The attack to Amber, the Fall Maiden, had set things moving. Shortly afterwards the Vale branch of the White Fang changed leadership and Blake Belladonna left the organization shortly before that. She might've tried to play it quiet, but the girl was an amateur in subtlety. Ozpin and Qrow knew about her past, although not her reasons. Continuing the series, Roman Torchwick had begun a series of Dust robberies that made no sense. One of his last heists had literally been witnessed by several citizens. He had directly _walked_ _in the middle of the street_ and tried to rob a shop. There was a reason Roman Torchwick had never been caught in years: he was cautious.

That robbery had been anything but cautious.

He knew the type Roman was. The man would've never been seen personally. He was the head of a criminal empire that expanded all thorough Vale, not some lowlife thief. That robbery went against everything that had kept Torchwick alive and out of jail until then. Qrow suspected that a new player had entered the fray and pushed Torchwick out of his normal habits. Forced, hired, convinced, it didn't matter in the end. Roman Torchwick would've never changed his style like that, so some outside party must've changed it for him.

Then Torchwick disappeared alongside his niece and some blond guy with an empowering Semblance or something. Yang had been kinda vague when describing it, but finding someone who turned Grimm-like when they activated their Semblance wouldn't have been hard. Of course, he had gone to Junior's for information… and that brought him to the last piece of his puzzle.

Ashley, Hygin, and Litan.

Now, Qrow wasn't among the best Hunters around for no reason. A quick check had confirmed his suspicions that those three were not licensed Hunters, nor mercenaries. And they weren't on any record, so he had to erase Academy-trained rogue Hunters from the options. No, they had learned somewhere else. They looked pretty young, so the chances of having learned in the field were slim, even if not inexistent. He himself had learned in the field most of his life. However, those three were too sophisticated to be rough outsiders who had learned in the wilderness. That left out only one other option. They had been trained by someone.

Moving onto that, there were a few reasons why they had trained with someone and not in a school. One, they didn't have the money at the time. Two, they were trained by their family as tradition. Or three, they wanted to stay out of the system to avoid identification. For _all three_ of them to have been trained by someone for one of the first two was hard to believe, but for all three of them to have no records nor any kind of identification was the tell-tale sign those three were criminals.

Maybe they were the third party that had forced Torchwick to change style and, eventually, flee? The woman wasn't all that good at hiding stuff, she smirked and grinned every time she thought no one was looking, and Qrow was pretty certain she had some sort of grudge to settle with Torchwick. Normally, he wouldn't complain about criminals killing each other, but his niece was in danger. For some reason Ruby was fighting _alongside_ Torchwick. For some reason Ruby believed Summer to be still alive.

Torchwick's new blond associate had probably something to do with it. He could already begin to see a possible picture. Taiyang had told him that Ruby had fought Torchwick during a robbery but she hadn't been able to capture him. Ruby must've told Torchwick her name, and he must've recalled Summer's own name and asked about it. When Ruby had confirmed to be her daughter, Torchwick had probably tried to weasel his way out by offering her the chance to find her mother again. Being the naive girl Ruby was, totally unprepared for the real world, she had accepted. Torchwick had hired a mercenary, the blond, to keep an eye on Ruby and to help and had started pretending to be looking into stuff to find her mother.

Then those three, Ashley and Hygin and Litan, had entered the picture. They had some kind of problem with Torchwick, and the crook's response was to blow up a warehouse and flee with Ruby and the blond, 'Jaune'. And those three were now searching for him.

Qrow was a Huntsman for a very serious reason.

It was so unfortunate, that he was wrong.

"Ice Queen, those three were surely not _good people_ ," he snorted in response to Winter's question. "Those were most probably criminals. However, they are helping us. I will keep an eye on them, and I'll watch out for any problem, but right now my niece is my priority. Heck, they could be assassins and still I wouldn't give a damn."

"You want to be aided by _criminals_?" screeched Winter, outraged. "We are better off without them, then."

"Don't be stupid, Ice Queen. If you want to track someone, it's good to have someone similar with you. They might have some insight we don't have." Qrow smacked her hand aside when she tried to slap his head. "Chill, Ice Queen. I told you, I'm not gonna trust them. But for all I care, they could be on their way to assassinate the Head of the Vale Council and I wouldn't give a damn. Ruby is top priority."

"But-"

Qrow rounded on her with a sharp glare that froze her in place. She had never seen that side of the man. Had she seen it, in her opinion Qrow would've been right next to Ironwood. His eyes were basically glowing with barely repressed anger. Apparently, Xiao Long had taken the fury from that branch of the family. But what really made her stop was the murderous glint in his eyes. "Ozpin gave me the order to find my niece and bring her home safely, and that's what I'm gonna do. If a Beowolf aids me in this mission, I'll accept its help. But that goes for you as well. I will tolerate you only as long as you are useful and not a hindrance." He turned away and walked off. "Let's go. Better not to lose the trail we have."

Winter stupidly stared at him, realizing just how wrong she had been about him. She had thought that a _drunk_ and a _moron_ would've become Hunters as famous as he was? She wasn't stupid, she knew Qrow was among the best in his field. Yet she had always dismissed him as an idiotic drunk who couldn't even hold his own in a fight.

For a second, she wanted to laugh at herself. There she had been, a good fifteen or so years younger than him, with a good fifteen or so years less training than him, and she had actually thought she could fight him on even ground. How foolish she had been. How much she had relied on her first impression. And that look in his eyes… it was like a promise. _If you cross me_ , his eyes had said, _you will die_.

Now, Winter had no doubts he would be able to kill her. And she had little doubts he would lose much sleep about it. It probably wouldn't even be his first human kill. Of course it wouldn't have been. That scythe of his had probably reaped human lives alongside Grimm. He was a Huntsman, missions didn't always mean Grimm extermination, and Qrow's name was on many non-Grimm-related missions.

"You coming, Ice Queen?"

This time, she didn't allow his arrogant, drunk behaviour to influence her, and called him with the title he deserved. "Yes sir."

Qrow groaned.

/-/

 _Boom_.

Professor G. Dorian, a young-looking man with perfect black hair and charming green eyes, turned with a sigh as the door of Signal's combat arena literally exploded inwards in a shower of wooden shards and fire. Being the combat instructor of a bunch of hormonal teenagers who had just been given superpowers, Aura and deadly weapons was already bad as it was, he really didn't need to get anything or anyone else involved. Raising a hand to stop the current match and clearing his throat to silence the room, he turned to look at the newcomers.

First a blonde barged in, and Mr Dorian repressed a groan. Flowing, long blonde hair, blood red eyes, curvaceous body, the beautiful bombshell's name was Yang Xiao Long. Or at least, that's what most people saw in her. He knew better. Yang Xiao Long. Barely passing in any class other than Combat Class. Uninterested in anything but fighting. Picked fights with glee, fought outside the arena, pranked students and teachers alike. A delinquent if he had ever seen one. Also overly protective of her hair, a trait that had caused endless problems with the other students. The man had gained ten years of life just because of her alone, and he was definitely _not_ pleased by her return. Especially such a destructive return…

As his eyes moved onto the next person, he stiffened. Weiss Schnee, daughter of Jacques Schnee, heiress of the Schnee Dust Company. Shit, that was not good. He didn't mind the Schnees, sure, but her presence there was… not good. She was obviously with Xiao Long, and that made the situation… delicate to say the least. If he were to openly oppose them, Xiao Long would've surely made a fuss and he would've surely been forced to subdue her and Ms Schnee. That would've probably attracted the ire of the Schnee family upon him, and he doubted his career could survive something like that. On the other hand, if he did _not_ stop them, Xiao Long would've _surely_ caused a fuss. His best choice was to threaten the blonde to call her father, but it still was a weak threat.

The Schnee could probably threaten _him_ of finding a way to have him fired, and that would've been a much more effective threat.

"Ms Xiao Long, Ms Schnee… to what do we owe the pleasure?" he asked amiably, turning to face them. His left hand, though, rose to lay on his sabre's hilt, the cool metal doing nothing to ease his nerves. He knew he should've taken up another career. Suddenly, helping loading crates at the docks didn't sound so bad.

"ARC! I WANT THOSE FUCKING ARC BITCHES! NOW!" screamed Xiao Long, fire going off all around her, before the Schnee forcefully grabbed her arm to stop her.

"Yang, stop! Screaming and cursing is _not_ gonna help!" exclaimed the white-haired girl, meeting Xiao Long's flaming glower with a freezing glare of her own. "Let me handle this."

Professor Dorian felt a headache coming. He could tell it was gonna be hell to deal with those two, especially. Still, he steadied himself for the Schnee's speech, until she thrust a paper straight into his face. Regaining his composure in a second, the man took it and glanced at the girl, who looked smug beyond comprehension.

" _That_ is a permission signed by Ozpin. It is similar to a Hunter's license, at the moment, and it allows us free reign in anything regarding our mission, and we do believe this to be part of our mission." The Schnee nonchalantly waved him aside as she looked at the crowd of students. "You, Mr Dorian, are to allow us to meet right here and right now with seven of your students. Those seven might hold some clues we might need for our mission. Hindering us means going against the direct wishes of the Headmaster of Beacon. Do you want to oppose him?"

The man didn't take the threat well. Had the paper been anything but a direct permission from Ozpin, he would've probably _politely escorted them out_ and forgotten about them. They were two wannabe heroes trying to solve their case. Brats, they were two naive, ignorant brats, that's what they were.

But the permission was there.

He sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose. "Very well Ms Schnee, Ms Xiao Long. Please, tell me the names of said seven students. But I must insist for you to leave your weapons to _me_. As 'allowed' as you might be, I know my students and Ms Xiao Long especially is someone I've had experience with."

"We will keep our weapons," the Schnee replied frostily.

Dorian's glare turned to stone. "No." The two girls opened their mouths to protest, but he beat them to it. "You have permission, yes. I have a Hunter license, and that overrides yours, both in terms of law and in terms of years of experience. I shall grant you this meeting because I bear immense respect for Mr Ozpin. However, I shall _not_ allow you to continue unless you hand over your weapons and allow your Auras to be bound with Aura-binding bracelets. These students are first years, their Auras still aren't unlocked, or at least most of their Auras aren't. I shall not have any of my students end up in ICU because of a fit of rage from a seventeen-year-old Huntress wannabe!"

The Schnee narrowed her eyes, but Xiao Long grabbed her arm this time. "Shut it, we can't win this argument. I know my teacher," she whispered in her ear. "Besides, our mission is to get information, not to beat 'em up."

The white-haired girl sighed before she nodded. "Deal." She handed her rapier over to the man, and Xiao Long followed suit with her gauntlets. A student was quickly sent to fetch the bracelets. "Now, care to share the names of the seven students you are looking for?"

Yang's eyes flashed red and she took a very, very deep breath before she exhaled slowly. "Yes, the names. We don't know the first names, though, but it won't be difficult to recognize them."

Dorian sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose once again. Yes, surnames could work too, but he really wished they could just have known the first names too. That just made it even more complicated. "Are you sure they are here? You might have the right surnames but the wrong relatives."

"No, it's not possible. We are _sure_ of it," Weiss replied haughtily. "Or well… yes, we are indeed searching for someone with that same surname, but he's not here. And if he is, then I fear we'll have to ask our weapons back."

"Then call the students already!" exclaimed the man, exasperated. He knew letting them open their mouths had been a damn stupid idea. He could already feel the headache growing and growing. "Don't waste any more of my time."

"Very well, I want seven bitches," Yang shouted to the class, not even bothering to keep her language polite. "The seven fucking damn Arc bitches. Get your ass down here this instant!"

 ** _Now, first off, the title of this chapter, Blood Debt. This refers to what Qrow suspects about Cinder and group, that they have a problem with Torchwick, as well as what Yang and Weiss do at the end. Now, I got to explain a few things, don't I?_**

 ** _First off, I got a haircut... wait, this is not what you wanted? Jeez, okay, okay, Summer's Semblance. All her allies are able to use each other's Semblances, and she can use all the others. Although her Aura drains very fast, and everyone's Aura too (it's like they are using her Semblance to keep up the effect), so it's good for short whiles, not for fights of endurance. OP, maybe, I don't care. Raven's Semblance is far more broken, and Weiss's is basically omnipotent as long as she has Dust and Aura. I call Summer's Semblance... All for One, of course, like the Three Musketeers. (four, actually...)_**

 ** _Then, let's explain that while Qrow is a good Huntsman, he does not have all the pieces of the puzzle. As such, he's wrong but not completely wrong._**

 ** _And Winter. Naive, naive Winter. In canon we see her basically fighting Qrow. Doesn't she know he could whip her ass without even trying? He's much older than her, and he's got training she doesn't. Is she really that proud? Maybe she relies on first impressions like Weiss does. So, let's shatter that image. Qrow is dangerous and I'm pretty sure he killed people for missions. Let's have Winter realize that she is the child and he is the responsible adult, not the other way around._**

 ** _Finally, Yang and Weiss. Ozpin did 'send' their team, so I decided that they were given something similar to a temporary Hunter License. At the same time, a real Hunter should be able to override their own orders. I chose to use Dorian's PoV instead of Yang's or Weiss's because I wanted you to see the story from an outsider's view. Canon always shows the children's PoV, making the adults look indolent and neglectful toward the world's problems. Here, we see that Hunters are not idiots, and that the students are not all that great. Dorian alone could've easily handled both of them, he's a Hunter. However, Weiss's name carries weight (again, something that canon never showed...) and he does not want trouble. Still, he's not an idiot. He took away their ability to hurt his students. In canon Hunters in training can just parade around with deadly weapons and nigh-invincibility (Aura), that shouldn't be right. So to show that Remnant has Hunters to do their job, while canon makes it look like they are all at their beach house, doing nothing, leaving everything to the students. I know the show is about RWBY, but it really makes no sense how they can do everything, and Hunters never could._**

 ** _Oh, G. Dorian is a reference to The Pciture of Dorian Gray._**

 ** _Also, did you really think Yang and Weiss weren't gonna go after the Arc sisters? Come on, it's the hotheaded brawler and the arrogant heiress we're talking about._**

 ** _No JRR (Jaune Ruby Roman) this chapter, sorry._**

 ** _Next chapter: Preparations._**

 ** _Until next time,_**

 ** _Khor Evik Vlakhavlakh_**


	13. Preparations

**_Whew, I really made you wait for this one, huh? Heh, I wrote like 3,400 words of this 4,400 words in these last 2 hours, so go easy on me. Anyway, much longer AN at the end, please don't miss, it's partly about this chapter, partly about the poll, and partly about next story to be updated. Enjoy!_**

Mercury Black was in doubt as he stared at the short bicoloured woman.

Cinder could and probably would kill him for such a thing. She had proved herself to be heartless and cruel so many times, and she had proved she even took pleasure in bringing pain to others, allies and enemies alike. She was a psychopath who had been given great power. In his mind, she was a whimsical little girl with infinite cruelness and a liking for bringing pain to others. She wanted everyone to play her games and if one even just _thought_ in a different way from how she liked, she killed them. She played with people's lives as if they were toys for her to use, and she didn't have the slightest hint of regret in doing so.

On the other hand, Cinder wasn't smart. Actually, she was pretty dumb, and she would've never expected someone to betray her. That was why she hadn't had any plan B, nor any countermeasure for Torchwick's betrayal. She relied on people not loyal to her, and thought that the threat of death would make her invincible. And frankly, he was getting quite sick of that. Emerald could've licked that bitch's ass all day, but Mercury was not Emerald. Mercury had no loyalty to her. Betraying her was on his to-do list, and surviving the temper tantrum that would _obviously_ follow was on his wish list, but actually doing it wasn't as easy as taking note of it.

He blinked, and the woman's eyes swapped colours.

On one hand, he'd be burned to death. On the other… he got to be free from the overbearing topnotch flaming-sword-up-her-ass bitch. It was a very tempting offer. A little bit of betrayal, a little bit of murder, a little bit of other illegal activities, but nothing he was uncomfortable with. Killing was easy. Betraying, even more so. Sure, the bitch had to be alert after Roman's little stunt, but it wasn't like she had any contact on her own. She had basically waltzed in, demanded Torchwick to serve and worship her like a goddess, and ordered him around. She had no real contact in the underworld, she wouldn't be able to hunt him down.

His eyes narrowed as he grasped the petite woman's hand. "Fine, let's give it a shot. Got a plan?"

Neo just grinned and shrugged before fishing out a Scroll and typing on it. _"N. XD kinda hoping you had 1"_

And just like that, Mercury began to regret the deal. "What? Argh, whatever. I'm not a planner, in case you hadn't noticed!" he whisper-yelled at her. "And Cinder was basically screaming 'suspicious' with those two Hunters, so they might be on our tail. I suggest we just cut ties and hit the road."

Neo tapped a finger to her chin before firmly shaking her head. _"N. I want to find Roman"_

"Can't you do that after we break off from Cinder?"

 _"N. Need other assassin/mercenary/skilled warrior. You. Only reason I'm offering"_

"Yes, yes, I know, you love me so much and we'll be best friends forever," snorted the boy. He _had_ supposed that to be her goal, but it had been worth a try nonetheless. "But seriously, what were you gonna do? Just run?"

She shook her head and began to type. Mercury was expecting just a no, or something like 'no way', so he was slightly surprised when she took two minutes to type the whole thing, even if she removed most vocals. _"Y/N. Brwn suspicious bout Cndr. He thnk us crmnl. We btry Cndr nd tll hm whr to fnd her. Then, we run nd find Roman."_

"Wouldn't this make him suspicious about us as well?" asked Mercury, raising an eyebrow. "He's not just gonna let us go."

Neo grinned. _"N. He takes care of Cinder. We then brng him to his niece, nd run with Roman. They have girl, we have Roman. All happy."_ She tapped a finger to her chin and smiled. _"Or. We tell him, run to Roman, help him hide, keep girl."_

"Branwen is pretty famous, Neo, he's not just gonna let us flee. He'll be on our tails."

Neo grinned before turning her Scroll around and showing him a message. _"Hey little one, we're coming back to Vale. You happy to see us? I'm sure you are, it's not been long but I miss you already. Here it's nice, but nothing's like home. Oh, I'm brnging your cousins too. They want your hlp with a puzzle they're trying to solve. Heh, to be honest, I'm confused too, it's more complex than it looks. But I think we have the right pieces, now we just got to place them! Don't tell your sisters we're coming, though, we want this to be a surprise."_

Mercury frowned, scanning the message, before bursting out laughing. "Your 'dad' is a genius!" he cackled with glee. "I couldn't have done a better job myself!"

Neo scoffed as if to say 'Duh, of course you couldn't', but she had a small smile of pride on her face.

The message was obviously from Roman, even though it was very well disguised. Not everyone would've been able to read it correctly, but Mercury was an assassin, and a pretty good one at that too. To him, the message was clear. Roman was returning to Vale, for whatever the reason, and he expected Neo to meet him somewhere. The 'sisters' were probably the Malachite twins, so probably at Junior's pub or nearby. And apparently, they needed time sorting things out for their 'puzzle'. Also, Roman wasn't coming alone. Branwen's niece and apparently someone else -or several someone else- were coming back with him. And finally, there was something else. Of the whole message, only 'bringing' and 'help' had typos in them. Had it been a message from anyone but Roman, he would've overlooked it. However, 'bringing help' was too specific to be anything but intentional. It either meant Roman was bringing help, or he needed Neo to bring backup.

Probably the latter.

Of course, the message was not all that hard to decipher, but most people did not look into every message.

Mercury rubbed his brow. "That does not answer my question. Roman or not, Branwen is gonna go berserk on our asses if he finds us."

Neo gave him a light shrug. _"Mybe Roman has solution."_

"You cannot just rely on him!" he scolded her before regaining his bearings. "Look, we can try, but going in with a half-baked plan is a horrible idea. If Branwen turns on us, we are screwed. I may be good, but I'm not _that_ good."

 _"Stop whining. If Brwn chase us, we hide. Simple."_

"And what about the fact that he's one of the best Hunters around?" drawled Mercury.

Neo blinked innocently. _"You can't find what you don't know is there."_

"He knows about us," he pointed out unhelpfully. "Listen, I really like the idea of betraying Cinder, but I _really_ don't like how we don't even know what to do next. Is joining Torchwick going to keep us off the map for a while?"

Neo shrugged. _"Prbbly."_

"Then I guess we'll just go with him. I'm pretty sure you were going anyway, so I'll just tag along. Besides, even if Branwen is good at hunting, Torchwick is better at hiding." The assassin took out his Scroll and quickly selected the 'Qrow Branwen' contact number. "Hello?"

 _"Huh? Err… Hygin, was it? What's up? You got any lead?"_

"I have no time for pleasantries, Qrow, so just listen carefully," snapped the young man. "Ashley's true name is Cinder Fall, mid-twenties, one of Salem's most loyal underlings, and she currently has half of the Fall Maiden's powers. Her Semblance is Glass Manipulation, but she mainly just uses fire. She's not smart, actually she's quite dumb, but she packs a mean punch with her magic."

 _"…wait, slow down, what-"_

"I said I have no time, I'm sure you are alarmed and confused. That's good, it'll keep you listening. She told me about Salem and how you are in Ozpin's inner circle. I don't give a damn, I just want to survive this mess." Mercury shot a glare at Neo when she mimicked laughing. "Tell Ozpin, tell whoever you want. I'm out, and all I want in return is for you to just forget about me. I'm not interested in this war of yours. Now shut up and listen, because I'm telling you where Cinder is only once."

/-/

The room they were in was completely silent, if not for their breathings. The nine girls were separated in two groups. On one side there were the nine Arc sisters, all blondes with blue eyes like their brother. On the other there were a red-eyed Yang and a seething Weiss.

Finally, the silence was broken. Unfortunately, it was not a good thing.

"Where is your brother?" growled Yang, prodding one of the girls with her index, making her step back. "So? Where is that bastard?"

"Don't call him that!" exclaimed one of the youngest three, looking angry. "He's always nice and-"

"Shut up, little brat, he's a bastard who kidnapped my sister, and I'm gonna kill him for that!" exclaimed the Huntress in training, loudly stomping her foot. "We have direct permission from Ozpin, and _you_ are gonna talk, or face the consequences! Do you want to face prison for having hindered a Hunter mission?"

"We're doing _you_ a favour by not telling you!" spat one of the oldest girls. "You think you're so strong, but if you go after Jaune you'll just end up hurt and in trouble! You-"

Yang grabbed the girl by the shirt and lifted her up. Even without her Aura, it wasn't such a hard task, the girl seemed all skin and bones. "Look, little shit, I don't give a damn about your brother. He could be eaten by a Grimm and I would still not give a damn. He kidnapped my sister alongside Torchwick. _That_ , I care about. He gives my sister back, I punch his everything in, and then we're good. But if he has done as much as harmed a single hair of Ruby's head, he's gonna wish he was dead by the time I find him."

Just as she was about to continue, a strong grip broke her hold on the Arc girl, and another of the sisters pushed her back. "Threaten us all you want, bimbo! Even if we knew, we're not gonna tell you anything!"

"You will!" shouted Yang.

"We won't! Just because you're a Huntress you think you are entitled to boss others around? Well, this is your wake-up call, you don't scare us! We've faced far worse than you!" one of the girls screamed at her face. "You're just a spoiled girl who is whining about because she can't control the world around her, and for the first time people aren't giving her everything she wants at once!"

"That motherfucker has my sister!"

"'That motherfucker' is our brother! You don't know anything about him!"

"I believe this requires a more practical approach," Weiss finally stepped in, putting a hand on Yang's shoulder and pulling her back. Then she stared down at the Arcs as if she was looking at worms, putting on her best haughty expression. "I am a Schnee. Unless you want my family and my father's company to push you into bankruptcy at once, you _will_ tell us everything you know about your brother."

The sisters merely began to laugh. " _No_ ," one of them spat with venom. "We don't need the sister of a paedophile after our brother, thank you."

Weiss's eyes flashed dangerously, and her hand reached for a sword that wasn't there. Whitley was too young to be considered a paedophile, so that only left one sibling, Winter, the one she respected above everyone else in the world. The one she looked up to the most. "I will not allow your insults to go unpunished. How dare you slander my sister's honour like that?!"

The sisters all smiled eerie smiles. "Oh, you don't know? How incredibly convenient of you… you see, your dear sister Winter is a paedophile, yes. Just ask her, if you don't believe us, I'm sure she will be elated to recommend you to the same boy she preyed upon…" Just as Weiss seemed about to explode, they continued. "Our brother."

"What?!" exclaimed Yang, shocked, while Weiss froze.

The oldest Arc sister laughed mirthlessly. "Oh yes, she did. And she also really enjoyed it," she taunted them wickedly. "What, you didn't know? You didn't think? Poor girls…"

"You bitch!" shouted Yang, punching her in the stomach hard enough to make her double over before bringing up a knee to her face. "Stop buying time with lies and tell us where your brother is!"

"Yang, stop!" exclaimed Weiss, but it was too late already. Another Arc sister tore the Huntress in training away from the girl, pulling hard at her hair. With no weapons and no Aura, all that was left was savageness.

Unfortunately for the two Huntresses in training, the Arc sisters had been taught the dirty tricks from their brother. He may have learned how to please, but he had also learned how to harm. Yang screamed when one of the sisters mercilessly pinched and harshly pulled her nipples. The scene would've been embarrassing and hilarious at the same time, hadn't it been so full of will to harm.

Weiss tried to help, but one of the youngest three defiantly took her on. Without her weapon, her Aura, and her Semblance, Weiss tried to fall back into a basic unarmed stance, but the girl just threw herself at her, punching and biting at everything she could get a hold of, especially the more vulnerable spots.

Then everything went to hell as Yang shrugged off her Aura-binding bracelets and used her Semblance to push everyone else off her before she grabbed one of the Arc sisters and banged her head against the wall. Ignoring the scratches and kicks she was receiving from the others, she landed a haymaker on another girl's back, resulting in a satisfying _crack_ and a cry of pain. She was about to attack a third sister, but she felt the air leave her airways. She brought her hands up to her neck, trying to dislodge the thick braid that was strangling her, but to no avail.

One of the Arc sisters had grabbed her long, wild mane and had wrapped it tightly around her neck, tightening and tightening it until she was choking the life out of the Huntress in training. And she would've succeeded in bringing her down, hadn't a Glyph thrown her off and into a wall, sign that Weiss too had removed her bracelets. With another flick of her wrist, a second Glyph hurled an ice crystal at the girl who was currently wrestling with the white-haired one, cutting her shoulder and forcing her to let go. Weiss then capitalized on her temporary distraction by using another Glyph to freeze her legs in place, removing her from the fight.

Yang still had three other adversaries, and by then the Arcs too had removed their Aura-binding bracelets. However, before anyone else could move…

"This is enough!"

The bone-chilling voice ripped through the air, not even a shout and yet perfectly heard by everyone. All the fighters froze immediately and shivered. That voice was a familiar one, but it was so full of rage and frost that it might as well have been a total stranger.

Professor Gray Dorian was standing at the door, with his steel sabre in one hand. His black hair was as perfect as usual, but his green eyes were wild with anger, and his fine features were so contorted by his fury that he was barely recognizable. Under his chilling gaze, the nine girls separated and stood up again, some aiding the others. "I do believe this _meeting_ to be over."

"They attacked us!" protested Yang, taking a single step toward the Professor. "They should-"

She was cut off as a second Gray Dorian appeared beside the first, a perfect mirrored image. Both men moved faster than Yang could follow, and both swung their sabres, scoring twin perfect hits on Weiss's and Yang's heads with their pommels. A second later, as the two slumped to the ground, the mirror image disappeared and the man sighed as he looked at the Arc girls.

Then he noticed their injuries, and he went absolutely parchment-white. "Holy Oum… Are you okay?!" he exclaimed, dropping his sword and crossing the distance between them. "You all need to go to the infirmary, now! And remove their bracelets, their Aura will help heal the injuries! A broken spine, a deep gash on her shoulder, a broken nose and maybe more, and two contusions."

His gaze shifted to the two girls to the ground and filled up with spite and venom. "I knew it. I knew I shouldn't have allowed them to meet my students. We shall see what Ozpin will have to say in his defence," he growled as he took out his Scroll. Opening the list of his contacts, he froze at seeing the top one. It was merely listed as 'Jaune'. If possible, the man paled even further, paler than a Schnee's hair, paler than snow. Steeling his nerves, he decided that the call to Ozpin could wait. He pressed the icon.

"…Jaune? I have bad news…"

He really didn't want to do that. Not just because of fear – he might've been scared of the empty eyes of that boy, but that wasn't the point. More because he pitied the boy. He didn't want to add even more pain to his burden. For a second, he pondered not telling him at all, and just feeding him some small white lie about bad grades -which wasn't far from the truth anyway-, but in the end honesty won over pity. The boy deserved to know the truth.

"It's… it's about your sisters."

/-/

Summer Rose shivered and huddled up in a ball, her knees pressing tightly against her chest. She hid her face into her legs and shook, a primal fear running through her. Something was happening. On the other side of her bond with the White Glow, something had happened. She couldn't feel the bond any more. For the first time in years, she was truly and completely alone.

Adam Taurus stared at her, worried. He wasn't worried for her per se, but more about what had made her behave like that. He would never admit it out loud, but in the short weeks he had known her, Summer had always been a light of strength and optimism. Seeing her cower and cry in fear was something that made him wonder what exactly was happening to make her like that.

And in that moment, he realized he really didn't want to know the answer to that question.

/-/

"I'M GONNA KILL THEM!"

Mercury and Neo froze dead in their tracks as the terrifying howl echoed in the mostly empty pub. Junior lost his hold on the bottle he was holding, letting it shatter on the floor, but he didn't seem to care. Miltiades and Melanie alike looked scared, as did all the patrons in the room. The very building seemed to shake and seethe with rage as the two assassins regained the ability to move.

"Jaune calm down, you've turned!"

"THEY ARE DEAD! THEY ARE DEAD!"

"Jaune, please, you can't help them if you continue like this!"

The two exchanged a glance and suddenly, the idea of meeting up with _whatever_ was in the room above sounded less than pleasant.

"Jaune, please!" came a girl's voice. "If you make a scene, Uncle Qrow will find us, and we won't be able to find Mum!"

"That's it, let's hurry and get this done with," stated Mercury, rushing up the stairs, with Neo hot on his heels. In a few scarce seconds they had reached the second floor and barged through the door, and in a few scarce seconds he immediately regretted doing so. He regretted ever hearing of the deal he had with Neo. He regretted betraying Cinder.

Roman Torchwick was in the room, yes. He was crouched in a corner, his eyes wild and full of fear, his coat now sporting large gashes where it had been slashed open, his skin white in terror. He seemed to have been thrown with great force against the wall, and the cracks in the concrete just strengthened that hypothesis. His usual cigar was nowhere to be found, and his hat was sitting askew on his head, but he couldn't bother to straighten it.

A short girl with a red cape, a black corset and skirt, and black stockings with combat boots, was standing in the room, her hands held up as to show she meant no harm, and a primal, instinctive fear in her eyes, a fear Mercury understood all too well. She had no apparent injury, but judging by how wide her terrified eyes were, she was gonna live with the mental scars from that moment.

But it was who – no, _what_ stood in the middle of the room what made Mercury's blood freeze.

It looked humanoid enough, under all the bone, but the assassin couldn't bring himself to define it as such. It was monstrous, over eight feet tall, and it towered over everyone else in the room. Sleek legs and arms, a lean body whose white ribs showed over the skin, could've given the impression of grace, but the beast was not gracious, it emanated dread with its mere presence. The face looked human enough, but no human would've had such terrible fangs in its snarling jaws, and its eyes were wild with unbridled rage and hatred, red like the roaring inferno of a wildfire, and no human would've had a skin blacker than the darkest night, nor such a wild mane of bone-white hair that looked sharper than swords. Each finger ended with a thin and razor-sharp claw that was long enough to skewer a person from side to side. The torn remains of a pair of grey pants and a blue shirt hung in shreds by its bones. And then… then there were the spikes. Those were the most terrifying detail about it. Long, sharp spikes grew all over its body. Clusters of two-feet-long blades were nestled on its back. Lethal blades of bone grew on its forearms, extending both well past its hands and well past its elbows. Bones grew from its legs and shins as well, and the ruined remains of a pair of shoes couldn't hide the wicked claws that topped each foot. Its front was covered by a light plating of bone armour, but in-between the plates ran files of small razors, as they did on the inside of its arms.

Mercury froze. He knew he should've stepped back and run, or at least attempted to fight, but he couldn't. What he was seeing just couldn't have been true. He had seen something like that only in movies, and even then those monsters could only hope to be a pale imitation of the horror he had before him. He felt more than saw Neo stop dead beside him, and he was sure she had gasped just like he had. It was taking him all his willpower not to break down screaming. It wasn't possible. It just wasn't possible. A Grimm like that couldn't exist.

"Jaune, please, calm down!" The girl in red was crying, tears streaming down her face in extreme fear, but she wasn't frozen. Mercury felt a stab of shame at seeing an obviously younger and less trained little girl being braver than he was, but he still couldn't bring himself to move. If she wanted to die, he wasn't gonna stop her. "Please, you won't solve anything like this!"

The Grimm just roared, a terrifying sound that shattered most of the glass in the room, and forced everyone to cover their ears, before it snatched the girl by her collar and lifted her up. _'It's going to devour her,'_ thought Mercury, and finally his muscles accepted to move, to step back from the abomination that was in the room. If the girl could buy him time, then all the better. He was done with all of that either way.

However, then something unexpected happened.

/-/

Ruby couldn't believe it.

She couldn't believe that Yang, the sister she had always loved and admired, had really attacked defenceless people just to get information. Deep down she had already known the lengths her sister was willing to go to get her way, as she still remembered the day when Yang had severely injured Junior's henchmen and utterly wrecked the entire pub just because she had been denied her answers.

She couldn't believe the effect the news had had on Jaune. She had always been a scared of the boy, but now she was positively _terrified_. The panic flowed in her veins like blood, bringing dread to every fibre in her body. Her mind was in shutdown, and she was acting on autopilot, trying to -somehow- calm him down before he could kill them. Had it happened in a different, more controlled situation, she would've laughed: he had always stated how he had no training, and he would receive a beating from any Hunter or Hunter in training he couldn't take off-guard, and then he turned into a monster she was sure even her fearless mother would've cowered in front of. The Grimm in front of her stank of the promise of death, and the dread permeated the air and clung to her, forcing her to inhale terror at every breath.

But what she could believe the least, was that she was going to die, and she was going to die by Jaune's hands. She wouldn't make it out of there, the Reaper had finally found something she couldn't defeat nor run away from. She wouldn't be able to complete the quest to find her mother. Summer Rose would remain where she was, trapped and forgotten, because she was going to die in a few seconds. No one would go to rescue her mother. Not even Torchwick, as he was probably going to die right after her. She felt the tears of grief and despair mixing with the ones of fear as the monster lifted her off the floor.

And then everything went white.

 ** _You must be saying: "What?! Silver Eyes so soon?!" And my answer is: "Well, yeah, duh."_**

 ** _Anyway, the poll first. Sorry to have deleted it, but the Christmas period has been... eventful to say the least. As such, I am no more on any kind of schedule. I will still update as often as I can, and I will try to keep a loop of stories, but I don't know what will come next. Sorry for telling you just now but... well, I celebrated Christmas and New Year with my family too, you know?_**

 ** _Anyway, onto the 'next update' topic: I might try my hand at another fandom, Deltora Quest, soon. I love the books, but I've noticed how the DQ section of this site is... lacking. Too few stories, in my opinion, and most of them have been last updated in the year range 2012-2014. Yeah, five to seven years ago... So I wanna try and write something. Not sure if it'll work, but one can always try!_**

 ** _And finally, onto this chapter. Ugh, my mind is gonna explode if I explain... so I won't! I won't explain what happened to Jaune, I won't explain what his powers now are, and I won't explain what Ruby's Silver Eyes will do to him._**

 ** _I will however say that Mercury and Emerald apparently knew about Salem, and that just like Roman Mercury shouldn't have a problem with leaving Cinder. Also, Cinder's gonna get her ass handed to her, yeah, because suddenly Qrow's priority is killing or capturing her. So, finally Mercury and Neo rat Cinder out. Duh, that was easy. However, they are not ready to fight Jaune's Grimm form (I'll think of a name for it, right now I only have berserk mode...) and they basically crap themselves in fear, lol._**

 ** _Also, if you feel like I'm bashing Weiss and Yang, well I'm not. Yang literally injured dozens of people in the Yellow Trailer just because Junior had no answers for her (we still don't know if he withheld info or really didn't know...). And Weiss is being prideful, as she did NOT get the lecture from Port, plus being made leader kind of fed her ego. As you noticed (maybe), Weiss did not join the fight until she was directly involved. And Yang proved time and again that when she's angry she doesn't hold back._**

 ** _So, if you feel like this is bashing... meh, I've done worse. Spare your breath. If you feel like my logical reasoning has serious flaws, then tha's useful! Just, don't drop a review just to say I'm bashing them, because you're not helping me improve nor inspiring me to write them differently._**

 ** _Oh, and Happy New Year!_**

 ** _Until next time,_**

 ** _Khor Evik Vlakhavlakh_**


	14. Recovery and Revelation

**_Sigh. Life is never easy, isn't it? Just as my WiFi goes down, I find out that Demonic Redemption's chapter 4 was posted as corrupted HTML format. And I was like: "Seriously?! What else?! Do I have a hidden cancer too!?" Let's just say that these weeks haven't been the best for me._**

 ** _Good news, my inability to access Internet has given me more time to write, and so here is DarkerShade's next chapter. Really, I hate bad WiFi. Took me far too long to fix DR... *continues to grumble and fades into the distance*_**

Arthur Watts scoffed for the umpteenth time as he watched Cinder Fall wince as her still raw injuries pressed against the velvety fabric of the couch. Her face was doing slightly better, but her right hand would necessarily be amputated – and not only because he would love to cut off her arm. It was too burned to heal properly, especially since her Aura was so focused on her torso, back, and face. Fortunately, removing her arm would allow her to get one of _his_ prosthetics – works of art, down to the last detail.

"Remove that cocky smirk from your face before I wipe it off for you," the woman growled angrily even as some measure of pain found its way into her voice.

"Your threats are worth as much as you are: nothing. You know I am too valuable to Her plans. And besides, _I_ am not the one who failed so spectacularly even I took pity of her." The corrupted doctor crossed the small apartment he temporarily lived in and reached the kitchen, removing a bottle of fine wine and bringing it back in the living room. A bit of courtesy between rivals never hurt, after all. Pouring two glasses, he continued his mockery, "Does that someone sound like someone you know, Cinder?"

"Damn you," she cursed even as she took the wine. Watts had always had a good taste for fine wines. She usually chalked it off as his Atlasian origins, but sometimes he was just _too_ fine to be anything but purposeful. " _I_ did not fail. My subordinates failed."

"Cinder, when you are the boss, you are in charge. If those beneath you fail, you are the one who takes the blame. Besides," Watts took a small sip of his wine, humming as the light flavour filled his mouth, "I did tell you that your plan was founded on the wrong people. Torchwick, Black, Taurus, Neopolitan… All those people had no loyalty to you. And where a better leader would've offered them a profitable deal, you forced them to work for you under the threat of death."

Watts shook his head in disapproval. "Of course they hurried to betray you as soon as they could. You gave them every reason to. The little girl, Emerald Sustrai, had a twisted view of loyalty. She was loyal to you even when it was obvious you did not care about her, and you still don't. Had all your underlings been like her, you could've succeeded. But as you can see…" He trailed off, drowning further reprimands into his wine as he drank. Cinder's face was tense, and as usual she was taking his lectures only as insults. Arthur sighed and shook his head again. Even when he tried to offer advice, he was met with that stubborn wall of arrogance that was Cinder. "Since you will take some time to heal, and I am supposed to watch over you, Cinder, why don't you tell me how Salem recruited you? You do not seem like one to actually search for her, and I will admit I am curious as to how someone like… well, someone like _you_ managed to be recruited."

Cinder's glare intensified just out of spite. "That's not your business," she spat angrily, refilling her glass.

"A predictable response. However, I am truly curious. If it helps assuring your reluctance, I shall tell you first. Besides, _my_ story is not the most common, so it could interest you." Watts took a few seconds to think about his recruitment, many years prior. The time he lived without knowing of Salem and her faction sounded so very far back now, but he knew it couldn't have been more than fifteen years – not even half his life. "Around eighteen years ago, I was a young scientist in the Atlasian branch of Grimm Science, as well as Cybernetics. I was brilliant, one of the best of my age, but I was different from the others. I never worked for money – but for passion. I genuinely loved what I did, and that was why I was so good at it."

"However, passion can also make you choose paths others would never choose," he continued after a second Cinder kept silent. Maybe his story was interesting her. After all, they had always been rivals without even knowing anything about each other. Maybe they would find more to hate about each other. "Fourteen years ago, the Schnee Dust Company began to apply pressure for all scientists to be used in the various fields of Dust. They wanted to make their business as large as they could. Dust androids, Dust weaponry, Dust tools of any kind. All things that already existed, of course, but _we_ brought them to an entirely new level."

Watts refilled his glass as a shadow ran over his eyes. "But my passion wasn't Dust. For the longest time, I had loathed Dust. We were too reliant on Dust, we had lost the ability to build anything that didn't run on Dust. Can you believe that, back then, we were working on vehicles that run on non-Dust fuel? Or weaponry that didn't need Dust to work?" Given how Cinder's eyes narrowed and how she frowned, she couldn't. "It could've been the next level. A world where Dust was used, yes, but not overused. But of course the Schnee _Dust_ Company couldn't have that. They forced us to abandon all our projects to focus on Dust."

For the first time in his story, Watts's voice betrayed his anger. "I worked for passion. I didn't love working on Dust, my passion was for Grimm Science and Cybernetics. I began a secret project I called Project Takeover. I captured live Grimm and I tried to insert chips and circuits in their bodies. In my opinion, if I could manage to find a way to control them via computer, we could reclaim the Grimmlands as ours. I didn't care about the lives it would save, nor about the money I would earn for it. No, I only wanted the challenge. The challenge of creating the greatest invention to have ever been created by human or Faunus mind." He bitterly chuckled to himself. "Alas, my project was discovered. Instead of considering it like they should have, they called me mad and inhuman. They called me Grimmlover, because my cybernetics could empower Grimm. And so, I never found a way to actually control Grimm."

"You can't control Grimm, Salem told me as much," Cinder pointed out.

"Yes, but that was fourteen years ago, Cinder. I did not know that. Full of bitterness, anger and spite for having been denied my dream, I was banned from the kingdom itself and I went to Vale. That was where I was contacted by Dr Merlot, one of Salem's loyal underlings back then." Watts laughed at Cinder's dumbstruck expression. "Yes, Dr Merlot was on 'our' side too. Unfortunately for him, when I was recruited Salem saw no further use in him, and he was devoured by a pack of his own pets."

Cinder shivered, and wondered whether she still was useful to Salem or not. Then she realized that Watts had begun to talk again, likely to finish his story.

"As I said, I've always worked for passion. I didn't care about people, and back then I cared less than ever. So I accepted. I was given the chance to work on my projects and receive immense funds, as long as I worked for Salem." He finished his story with a thin bitter smile. "So… did my story loosen up your tongue, or are you going to stay silent?"

Cinder merely shrugged. "My story is not like yours. My family died when I was thirteen. My house was burned. I wanted revenge. To get revenge, I needed power. Salem took me in personally, eight years ago, and she grew me into the warrior I am."

Arthur Watts laughed. "So that's the reason. You were nothing special – but you were an opportunity. An opportunity to shape you into the perfect underling."

Cinder narrowed her eyes, but despite wanting to snap back, she knew he was right. Salem had taken her in only because of that. However, she had been away from children for too long – if she had ever been with one. Cinder hadn't grown attached to her. She only considered Salem a source of power – and betrayal was as possible as any other choice. "My past doesn't matter. All it matters is my present and my future." She downed the rest of her drink and grimaced. "I hope your prosthetics are as good as you think they are."

Watts grinned. "Oh, don't worry. They are."

/-/

Ozpin was furious. No, he was more than that. He was absolutely seething, and the targets of his wrath were no less than the two students before him. Two students who had used the authority he had given them to bring harm to other people. Two students who had clearly crossed all the lines. Two students he _hadn't_ allowed to go on an unofficial mission, and two students he absolutely hadn't allowed to order Hunters around in his name. Those two had betrayed his trust, abused his and their power, and overstepped too many lines.

Added to that there had been Qrow's report not even an hour prior, stating how the False Maiden had escaped him, and how he couldn't find any decent lead to her once again. At least it seemed that the Queen's plan had folded inwards like a card castle without their intervention, and that was a relief.

He forced his mind back to the matter, and forced himself to drink from his mug. As disapproving as Glynda was of drugs, Ozpin knew that without the nerve-calming drug he always added to his coffee, he would've snapped long prior. And that day was no exception. When he was finally in control again, and not raging like a Grimm, he spoke, "I'll be honest with you. I do not even wish to hear what you have to say in your defence. Your actions have been simply unacceptable. My permission was to ask around, _not_ to destroy a pub, injuring dozens of civilians, _nor_ to walk into a school and _gravely_ injure seven students. _Especially_ not during a meeting that should've been Aura-less. Apparently, they should've made you wear Aura-binding _collars_ or _handcuffs_ , not bracelets, to avoid you removing them. Alas, they made my same mistake and decided to trust you. A mistake that cost five students dearly. Last I checked, one of them was going to be released from the infirmary in two days. _With Aura_."

Yang opened her mouth to speak, but Ozpin slammed a hand on his desk, cracking it. "There is no excuse for what you've done!" he thundered, making them both shrink at the sheer power in his voice. "Yes, this was a personal mission. However, I want you to understand the gravity of your actions. I've been informed that Professor Dorian has already informed their brother of their injuries. Now you made this personal for _him_ as well!"

"Good, then he'll finally fight us!" Yang shouted out, immediately regretting her outburst.

Ozpin's rage could've frozen Remnant over. "Ms Xiao Long, I appointed Qrow Branwen and Winter Schnee to this mission for a _reason_. You are nothing but a _first year student_. What do you think you can do? If he is really allied with Roman Torchwick, and given how he defeated both of you _without using his weapon_ at Hei Xiong's club, I seriously doubt you would be able to do anything but anger him."

With his point having gotten across, the Headmaster steeled himself for what was to come. Their punishment. Something that would punish them for what they had done, but at the same time something that would've protected them for Jaune Arc's ire. "Your actions have clearly proven that neither of you is fit to be a Huntress. You both are hereby expelled from Beacon Academy and blacklisted by all Academies and combat schools. Your Auras will be locked as soon as this mission is over, in an attempt to keep you safe from harm in case our target comes for you. Your weapons will be broken at the end of this period as well. Both of you are to publicly apologize to the whole kingdom of Vale for your actions unfit of Huntresses. You are also forever forbidden to participate in any combat tournament, from the smallest local tournament to the Vytal Tournament. As soon as your Aura is sealed, you will begin the rest of your punishment. For your crimes against the Kingdom of Vale, you are to spend a year working as employees at Hei Xiong's club, and then one year working as janitors at Signal Academy. Otherwise, you shall spend four years in prison."

"What?!" Yang exploded. "I get it, we fucked up, but that's too much! Expelled, blacklisted, Aura locked, weapon broken, _and_ forced to work?! Just for some injuries?!"

"Ms Xiao Long, from the moment you become a Huntress in training, you become separated from civilians. You are infinitely more powerful. It would take Oum only knows how many civilians to bring down one of you. As such, all crimes committed by Hunters are considered crimes against the Kingdom, or crimes against humanity as a whole." Ozpin's eyes were hard as he spoke. "Hunters should be beacons of light to guide people through the darkness of the world. They _must_ retain perfect behaviour. That is why Ms Goodwitch is so strict in forcing the students to obey the rules. And before you mention your uncle, Qrow Branwen, despite all his oddness he has yet to be accused of any kind of crime – drunkenness aside. And he has spent his fair share of nights in prison for that."

Ozpin threw them one final look of disapproval and shook his head. "So much wasted potential… You are dismissed."

/-/

Ruby awoke slowly. Her head pounded as if a hammer had been hitting it for the past hour. She blinked the haze out of her eyes, and she felt her forehead wet. After a few seconds of complete disorientation, she managed to sit upright and she finally manage to take in the situation she was in.

She was lying down on the ground, without any kind of blanket, and her cape had been bunched up to act as pillow. She was still in the same room she remembered being in just before she fainted. Her head hurt, but she forced herself to ignore it.

Roman was taking very deep breaths not far from where she was, his trench coat ripped beyond repair, but he seemed alive. He was clutching his hat as if it were his only lifeline, and no cigar dangled from his lips. When he noticed she was awake, he breathed out a sigh of relief. "You really had… us worried for… a minute, Red," he spoke between pants, forcing his legs to move so that he was standing beside her. "How do you… feel after that?"

Ruby winced, but shrugged. "My head aches, but that's just about it. Did you wake me up?"

"No, I did," spoke a stranger's voice. Another male entered her sight – a tall boy with grey hair and eyes, dressed in a black and grey combat suit. "The name's Mercury. We tried shaking you, but it didn't work. Even with water, it took a few minutes before you started to stir."

"Thank you," she replied shakily, holding her head as a new wave of nausea hit her.

"You just saved my ass, waking you up was the least I could do. Although my main reason is that you're the only one who can stop that thing again if it breaks free." Mercury jerked his head toward the centre of the room, and she turned.

A horrified gasp left her lips. Jaune.

Or rather, the monster he had turned into earlier. She had only caught a few shreds of conversation, but she could guess that whatever topic it had been about, it had hurt and enraged him incredibly. For all his faults, she couldn't say Jaune was prone to anger. Annoyance, frustration, exasperation, but rarely anger. To see him turn into an eight-feet-tall Grimm covered in spikes and emanating killing intent in waves had been horrifying, but seeing what she had done to him was almost as horrible.

She had petrified him.

The monster still stood in the middle of the room, its arms thrown before its face in an attempt to shield itself from whatever attack she had brought. There was no doubt she had done it just before falling unconscious, as no one else had been there to help. She couldn't really fault them for that. The monster had scared her too… and then she had turned it to stone. She shakily stood up, aided by Torchwick, and circled the statue, searching for the slightest hint of life, but there was none.

"He is… dead?" she asked, her voice on the verge of breaking.

A bicoloured short woman appearing out of nowhere shook her head. "We can feel its heartbeat, as strange as that is," Mercury explained. "Whatever you did, it's still alive, and it could break free, so be quick and finish it off."

"No!" she exclaimed, shocked by his suggestion. "He's my friend! Or, well, Jaune is my friend! I will bring him back!"

"You 'friend' is an eight feet tall Grimm abomination?" Mercury asked in disbelief.

"No, it's a very long story I'm sure you wouldn't like hearing. I just never thought he could transform like that. I knew he turned when he was angry, but this is insane!" Torchwick groaned and ran a hand through his hair. "Let's just get out of here. Junior's men won't pry, but I'm sure his patrons won't be like that."

"Just let me try one thing," Ruby begged, stepping closer to the statue. "I just need to try something. Anything. Please."

The bicoloured woman shrugged, and while Mercury looked nervous, he too agreed. With a sigh, Roman nodded, giving her the go-ahead. She took a deep breath and tried to think of how she had activated whatever power that was. Maybe if she somehow inverted the process, she could revert the effect. She placed a hand on the stone and closed her eyes.

Before she could do anything, the whole statue shattered, revealing a very much alive monster that stumbled back with a growl of confusion. Ruby, Mercury, Roman and the woman froze again. No one had expected it to be so easy. Maybe the monster had already been trying to break free, and the physical contact had been all it had needed to break free. In any case, none of them was ready to face it again, Ruby less than anyone.

Ruby tensed when the Grimm stared down at her, almost twice her height. No one dared to even breathe, but the four humans slowly moved to a fighting stance.

There was no need.

Slowly, the spikes receded into the black skin, and the monster began to shrink. Pointed teeth disappeared, replaced by normal ones. The monster blinked. The skin rapidly paled, losing its blackness, and the hair began to slowly turn yellow, starting at the roots and travelling down its back. Claws receded into fingers, and hands curled into fists. Horns shrank and disappeared as the skull reshaped slightly. Armour plating cracked and disappeared into smoke, revealing the skin underneath. Finally, standing where the monster had once stood, there was a young adult with long, wild, blond hair, deep blue eyes, thinner than she had ever thought possible, and with a bitter expression on his face.

Then she noted the absence of scars.

On Jaune's body and face she couldn't see any scar. Not even the slightest. The unmarred skin still didn't look healthy, as it was too pale, but the boy didn't look like he had gone through a shredder any more. Had he healed while Grimm? That was possible. He did say that being Grimm gave him minor regeneration, maybe turning completely had increased his healing rate?

"Ruby, could you please stop staring?" he asked with a hearty dose of sarcasm, breaking her out of her trance, and she finally processed what her eyes had been trying to tell for quite a while now, something she really should've paid more attention to before starting to gaze at him.

He was utterly naked.

With an embarrassed yelp she whipped around and defiantly stared at the opposite wall, her face as red as her cape. Roman was back to being terrified, but Mercury and the woman alike were keeping their fighting stance, both clearly a hair's breadth away from attacking Jaune.

"Can someone fetch me some clothes? I don't think parading around naked is as fashionable as you think it is," Jaune's sarcastic voice reached her ears, and it seemed to convince Mercury that the boy was in control. "After I'm dressed, we can talk about going to Signal."

Roman nodded to the woman. "Neo, go downstairs and tell Junior to give us one of his spare suits." As she disappeared with the sound of shattering glass, the crook turned to Jaune. "What was that?!" he asked with a note of hysteria in his voice.

"What was what?" Jaune rebutted without missing a beat.

"The Grimm abomination you were until a scarce minute ago," Mercury cut in with a hard voice. "The one hellbent on killing us all and eat our corpses as snack. You almost bit Red's head off before she flashed you with that weird light of hers."

There was a long pause.

"I… don't remember. The last thing I remember is being furious, and turning. Then everything went red, then silver, and then black. Then it turned back to red, and when the red faded, you were all staring at me weirdly." Jaune's voice turned suspicious. "Also, who are _you_?"

"He's our backup." Roman fumbled with a cigar and lit it, inhaling deeply. "Jaune, this is serious, so tell the truth. Do you really not remember _anything_?"

He just shook his head. "Nothing, although I'm guessing me not remembering is just worsening the situation. Tell me _what_ happened. The only other time I felt even just remotely like that was when I kil… when I killed my father. And even then, my sight was just in shades of red, not completely red."

"Well… while we wait…" With a bit of help from Mercury, Roman recounted the events that had led to their current situation, much to Jaune's increasing worry. After the woman, Neo, returned with the clothes, he hurried to make sure Ruby was okay, and thankfully she was. Shaken, with a terrible headache, but overall fine. Then he took a few minutes to think.

Actually, everyone took a few minutes to think. To think of what had happened, but mostly to think of the future. Now that it was clear Jaune was not in control of his powers, they would need to be extra careful, especially since Ruby couldn't manage to remember how she had used that petrifying light.

Finally, Jaune spoke. "My outburst caused us many problems. I can't use any of my Semblance's connections any more. Not to my sisters… nor to Summer." He raised a hand to stop Ruby from bursting. "We will still search for her, Ruby. It's the least I can do to thank you for having stopped me from going rampage in the middle of the city. I have apparently underestimated my Grimm nature."

"Shouldn't our mission be over?" asked Torchwick. "I mean, you got the connection severed. That's a plus."

"I said I can't _use_ , not I can't _feel_. The connections are all there, but I can't send any Aura into them. As if they have just… dried up. Maybe they will return with time, maybe they will disappear completely. I cannot be sure of it until we get Summer. Besides," he added, glancing at a downcast Ruby, "I think we can all agree we owe Ruby as much. We know where Summer is, and we're going to get her. And I… I will…" He took a deep breath. "We will not visit Signal. As much as I want to check on my sisters, Grey said they were going to be fine, and we can't risk our mission because I'm worried. We will go directly to the labs and free Summer. From there on, we shall see."

Mercury shrugged. "Figures. Well, at least one of us is a planner…"

"When do we start?" Ruby asked, her voice thick with gratitude.

Jaune's eyes narrowed. "We don't know if I will ever lose control again. If I do, it's better to be quick. So… immediately. Gather your things. Neo, new guy, we'll bring you up to speed while we go. We have a train to take, and then a two-hour walk from the town."

Ruby's eyes were glowing as she nodded. "Let's go."

/-/

Adam Taurus would freely admit that he was not what people would call a good person. He knew it, he accepted it, and he moved on. Good people could rarely change discrimination into acceptance. He knew that if he wanted to get results, he needed to do so outside the law. Legally speaking, the Faunus already had equality, so his job was literally to make sure the humans remembered that.

Adam Taurus would also freely admit he didn't like humans. Not one bit. That dislike didn't spread to all humans, but he could honestly say he disliked most of mankind. He couldn't help it. His stomach churned, his teeth gritted together, and his hands clenched into fists whenever he had to talk with humans. At the same time, though, he knew when to look past his personal hatred.

The White Fang he once led had been his idea. Sienna Khan had begun the rebellion to humans, but it had been him, Adam Taurus, at the young age of eighteen, who had taken the lead of the Valean branch and turned it into what it was. He only had one rule.

Hate humans because of what they are, not because they are humans.

His rule seemed to contradict itself, but it was actually very simple. Humans hated Faunus because of their race. He didn't want to be like the humans. He could freely admit he hated all those racist humans, and some of the non-racists too. But hating humanity as a whole would just make him exactly like the humans.

How he had begun to think like that, he could not remember.

But as he looked at the slumped form of Summer Rose, Adam felt something he would've never thought he would feel for a human. Pity. Not compassion, not comradeship, surely not friendship. But pity, he did. How could he not? For eight years Summer had had only one thing keeping her sane, and now that one thing had disappeared. Finally, the one thing she had dreaded the most, the one thing she had had nightmares about for years, had happened.

Finally, the White Glow had abandoned her.

 ** _Whew, this was so fun to write... kind of. Anyway, as you can see Jaune wasn't dead. After all, in canon the Wyvern didn't die, so not all Grimm are killed... especially when Ruby still doesn't have any control over her powers._**

 ** _Also, let's hope the WiFi won't mess this up too..._**

 ** _Anyway... yes, Summer's White Glow has disappeared. Poor her, I know. I'm evil, I know. It's good to be evil, you should try it too sometimes. And Taurus is slightly different from canon - okay very different, but he's got a reason to be different. Although, Blake still broke up with him._**

 ** _And of course Cinder is alive. I want her to die in a very special way._**

 ** _Yang and Weiss get punished. Since Hunters are like 10000 times stronger than the strongest civilian, I'm guessing they face greater punishment when they break the law. Maybe you think this is too much... meh, I laughed while I wrote their punishment. They are a violent bimbo and a proud arrogant bitch._**

 ** _And finally we got to see why Watts joined Salem! As well as why Cinder did. I purposefully made Cinder's story so underwhelming because her whole character is just so underwhelming. Maybe one day I'll write a serious backstory for her, but that day is not today. And yes, that's how Merlot died. ^^_**

 ** _So... so... so... oh yeah, Jaune's Grimm form! Well, this current one is Carnifex. The name has been offered by Void Death's Harbinger. Currently, I have thought of these forms:_**

 ** _Carnifex, the Abyss Unleashed (Grimm Hellkite)._**

 ** _Pavor, the Hideous Fear (Grimm Nightmare)_**

 ** _Iudex, the Dark Inquisitor (Grimm Paladin)_**

 ** _Inferno, the Burning Doom (Grimm Omega)_**

 ** _I'm thinking to have them all be without control, at least at first. Oh, the last is the strongest. ^^_**

 ** _Now, unless FF and WiFi decide to mess this chapter up like they did for Demonic Redemption, this should be it._**

 ** _Until next time,_**

 ** _Khor Evik Vlakhavlakh_**


	15. Hell's Gate

**_Whoa! Here I am, with A Darker Shade of Gold, chapter 15! In this chapter we finally see some quality time! I mean, fighting scenes. Which I suck at, because I am too down-to-earth to really make awesome/impossible/contorsionistic/unrealistic fighting scenes, so I suck at it. Beware. No Summer and Taurus in this, but we see someone else coming into the story..._**

Jaune trudged through the muddy path with a heavy heart. With every step, he got closer to the end of his mission. Normally, that would've made him happy, but he couldn't help but worry for Summer. His Semblance was not protecting her any more. His connections with his sisters, all normal Marks instead of Soulmarks, were unusable too. Were something to happen to her, she would be without the semi-invincible armour she had always had. Without the armour she had probably gotten used to.

He had begun his mission with the only goal of removing his connection with the woman, but in the two weeks he had known Ruby, he had gotten to care a bit for her. If he could, he didn't want to make her sad by letting Summer die. He knew very well what loss could do to people, and he had the inkling Ruby had never really gotten over her mother's supposed death. She was just too naive to be anything but in denial. In denial of the cruelness of the world, or in denial of her mother's death, he could not say.

If losing her mother once had brought the girl to hide her pain so much, he didn't like the idea of what losing her twice could do to the girl. It might even break her mind.

He shook his head. _'No. I am not going to let Summer die. I never promised anything like this before, but I_ _ **will**_ _save her. I may not have been able to save Mom and Dad, but those were beyond my power. I'd sooner die than let someone die under my watch.'_

"So this is it?" Roman's voice cut through his internal musing like a hot knife through butter. The boy looked up and glared at the large, windowless building before him. A muted, constant growling came from behind the well-maintained door. "Sure looks like it."

"I have never been inside, but I think it is. Whenever I passed by this house when I was a kid, I could hear faint screams and Grimm growls." He forced out a sigh. "I cannot hear screams any more, but this might not mean anything. Maybe they just made the labs proper soundproof."

"Well, from my estimation, there is at least a whole pack of Beowolves in there, and they've sensed us already. For some reason, they are not coming out to attack us." Mercury glanced at him. "Must be Watts controlling the Grimm."

Jaune stared at him. "I never told you that," he noted with more than a hint of suspicion in his voice. Mercury stiffened and silently cursed. "How do you know he can control Grimm?"

Sighing, the assassin shook his head. "Listen, I put all of that behind me when I betrayed my boss. Long story short, you don't want to know about this. Not yet, anyway. Maybe after we're done with this. But yeah, my boss was the failure so disliked by Watts. During their meetings, I swear I could see the sparks going off between them." He closed his eyes and when he opened them again, they were hard with determination. "I don't want anything to do with that any more. That was a game of chess where no one knows the full truth. I was used as a pawn, and I got away. End of the story. My boss and her colleagues could control Grimm."

"And just like that Cinder is _way_ scarier now," grumbled Torchwick. "If she can control Grimm, why hasn't she ordered them to track us down already?"

Mercury and Neo exchanged a glance. "Well… because she's too dumb to do that," admitted the boy. "Maybe Watts would, but other than that, only their boss and Watts would actually think of doing something like that. One is a psychopath, and the other isn't too smart himself. Maybe their boss wouldn't, just because she wouldn't worry about us. So that leaves only Watts, and Watts does not know how we look like, so he can't send Grimm after us."

"Then let's keep it like that. Blondie, do the labs have cameras?" Torchwick barked at Jaune. "I haven't seen any, but it never hurts to make sure."

"They don't. Watts is very careful, so he doesn't want to leave any video proof of the experiments. Especially because notes can't show you a face." Jaune grinned. "At least this is good for us too, isn't it?"

"Are we going?" Ruby asked anxiously, cutting through the conversation with her high-pitched voice. "My mother might be dying right now!"

Pursuing his lips, Jaune nodded. "You're right. Everyone, behind me. I have the most Aura, so I'll be the first to enter."

"That's stupid. Never send in the tank first," growled Mercury. "Neo and I are going first. We are skilled at killing, and we're both hard to hit. I highly doubt there will be a trap right on the front door that faces the road, but if there is, we are the ones more probable to dodge or avoid it."

"I agree with Merc on that," added Roman.

"Whoever goes, let's do it!" exclaimed Ruby, tired of talking. She would let Crescent Rose talk.

Mercury nodded to Neo, and cautiously approached the door. Opening it just a fraction, he peered inside. Raising his right hand, he gestured them the coast was clear. He stepped into a small atrium with three other doors, one on each wall, that led to other three rooms. He could only see the one straight ahead -empty- but from the light shuffling, he guessed the Grimm were in both the lateral rooms. Neo entered after him, and Jaune followed. Ruby and Roman closed the line. Despite the Grimm having obviously sniffed them out, no Grimm was in sight.

Then a large iron door fell and slammed shut, closing off their only escape route. At the same time, howls rose from the two adjacent rooms.

"I knew it! A trap!" exclaimed Mercury, getting into a fighting position. They were slightly cramped, but at least they knew the Beowolves had it just as bad, if not worse. "Ampere or Watts, it's clear they want us to enter and be killed in here."

"Knowing Ampere, this is just a game for him," murmured Jaune as red eyes appeared in both doorways, followed by the bodies of the first two Beowolves. At the same time, the third doorway was occupied by a third Beowolf. "Watch out, they are genetically tinkered with. I am not sure of what they could do."

"I don't care!" exclaimed Mercury, performing a spinning kick and beheading the Beowolf with the sheer force of the hit. "Heh, these are easy to kill."

The body turned into smoke, and then… four more bodies formed from the black vapour. Six legs, bulbous red eyes, and chittering jaws, four Skitters -Grimm beetles- stood where the Beowolf once stood. "Fuck, they multiply!"

Jaune growled and grabbed the oncoming claw of his own Beowolf with a hand. "Then kill them too!" he shouted, unnecessarily, as he drew his sword and clumsily impaled the Grimm. Glowering with distaste at the forming insectoids, he tried to wield his sword as best as he could with the training he had, that was zero.

Meanwhile, Roman and Ruby weren't remaining idle. Since the front lines were being occupied by Mercury, Jaune, and Neo, who had just impaled the third Beowolf through its throat, the two redheads used their ranged options to kill the forming Skitters, and try and aim at the Beowolves still in the doorways. "We have to get more space!" protested Ruby. "I can't fight like this!"

"That's the difference between a Hunter and a good Hunter!" Roman laughed as he blasted two of Jaune's Skitters in one shot. "A good Hunter does not develop a fighting style that can only work with lots of space. Any fighting style that relies on specific criteria to be met is a poor fighting style! Dust, space, comrades… one day, it will always fail you, no matter how big you make your weapon!"

Biting back a scathing retort about Crescent Rose being a very good weapon, Ruby focused on the Beowolves Neo was fighting. Due to her short stature, the small assassin gave her plenty of space to aim.

A rapid series of three kicks cleared Mercury's side, ending the final Skitters, while Jaune was easily holding his own against the last two Beowolves. He was not as skilled as the others, so he got hit quite a few times, but he just shrugged off each and every single hit like it was nothing. His Aura was being as impressive as always, it seemed.

Ruby smiled briefly. At least one thing was going their way.

"Alpha!" Roman shouted as Neo actually had to dodge a large paw that crashed on the ground. He levelled his cane and shot an explosive bullet, but it only cracked its mask. Seeing her chance, Ruby unfolded Crescent Rose and used what little space she had to dart forwards and dig the blade into the creature's neck, killing it instantly. Unfortunately, it turned into four Skitters, but fortunately those were easily taken care of.

"I got way more coming!" announced Jaune, much to their annoyance.

"Yeah, and from the growls I can hear, we got something bigger, maybe an Ursa, a few rooms away. It doesn't seem to be moving, though," added Mercury, turning to look at the blond. "But you're handling yourself pretty fine. Just go on."

"Mercury!" exclaimed Ruby, miffed by his carelessness. However, the boy was already moving, smashing Grimm with his armoured boots like one squashed flies. She actually felt a bit envious of his incredible skill: he seemed basically at her uncle's level. She could understand he was an assassin while she was a Huntress, but that couldn't stop the tinge of envy.

Jaune stepped back to allow more Grimm into the room, and at the same time to allow his companions to fight too. "The Beowolves aren't too hard. We'll take care of the Ursa after we're done with these," he told them as he impaled a Beowolf through the head, accidentally putting too much force into the hit, and sticking the blade into the floor for quite a bit. Shrugging, he stomped the Skitters born from the corpse.

"Why should we kill it?" asked Roman, obliterating a Beowolf's chest. "It's not our job. If we can get past it, that's fine by me."

"If we kill Ampere, the Grimm will probably lose control and return to be wild. So if we leave this modified Ursa alive, it could cause quite a bit of problem back in town," the boy explained as he watched Ruby shoot the last Skitters. "I may not like my townsfolk, but this doesn't mean I'm gonna let a powerful Grimm loose like that."

Torchwick sighed, but he didn't argue with that logic. He couldn't, actually. Instead, he glanced with disgust at the black smoke coagulating around Jaune's legs. "Ugh, you're doing it again. The Grimm-absorbing thing." Mercury and Neo took notice of that, and quickly stepped back. "Oh, yeah, forgot to tell you. Kid here absorbs Grimm."

"That's… freakish…" commented Mercury, and Neo nodded vigorously. Both were crime-hardened murderers, but to see a person absorbing the essence of the bane of humanity was still unsettling, even for them.

"It is but… right now I feel better than before. As if my body regained a part of itself I never knew I had lost. Do I look different?" Jaune looked at them, and Roman recoiled.

"You have insectoid jaws!" he explained, horrified. Jaune brought a hand up to his mouth, but he could not feel anything. Only then he recognized the joke for what it was, and promptly glared at the thief, who conceded himself a small laugh.

"Yeah, yeah, keep being funny. I'm sure the Grimm will find you hilarious as well as delicious," he grumbled. Without waiting for a reply, he walked away, in the direction of the Ursa's growls. The group followed him, and they entered the adjacent room.

The Beowolves had upturned tables and scattered notes, but aside from that, it looked like a very normal office, albeit windowless. Even the documents on the floor were legal stuff. Bills, payments, contracts. Apparently, being evil scientists that experimented on humans and Grimm did not stop the law from bothering them. Even the bad guys had to pay the bills. Ruby picked up one and examined it. "That's… weird."

"Looks normal to me," noted Mercury, glancing from over her shoulder. "Also, the Ursa is not coming for us, so it's either guarding something, or it has orders to let us come to it."

"Probably the second," shrugged Torchwick, sharing a few documents with Neo. The mute woman was giggling silently. "Look, this one is the order of three hundreds blankets of some sort. For a _lab_."

"It's for the experiments, I guess. Blood is hard to wash off," explained Jaune. "Most of the time, the cloth will be stained forever. And in case of an inspection, they needed clean blankets to make it look like a normal medical study or something similar."

"And the prisoners?" asked Mercury. "Those might be hard to hide."

Jaune shrugged. "I don't know. I've never been here, maybe the cells are hidden. In the one I visited, there were no cells."

"But why does an illegal lab like this have… _these_?" asked Ruby, holding up more sheets of legal documents. "It's full of them! In the next room too!"

"Ruby, this is an illegal lab and all, but Watts doesn't have all the resources he wants nearby. He needs the transport company to bring him the larger cargoes, and surely he too needs to shop for food." Jaune dropped the documents he was holding and continued onto the next table. "Electricity is not generated by willpower, either, and neither is water. Bills, taxes, costs… as evil as he may be, Watts isn't stupid. If he were to steal everything he needed, he'd soon be caught."

"Holy words. Even _I_ have to pay the bills," grumbled Torchwick. "Really. A famous criminal mastermind, having to pay the bills like everyone else. You can't just steal a _house_."

A loud roar echoed in the room, making the flinch and reminding them of the task at hand.

Ruby dropped the documents and unfurled Crescent Rose with a determined nod. "I'm taking care of the Ursa. Don't worry, I've dealt with Ursai before. I'll just look out for any 'special powers' it might have."

The other four members of the group shared a glance, and then shrugged. "Sure," nodded Mercury, giving her the go-ahead. "The more you kill, the less I have to kill. Less work for me."

With a twirl of rose petals, Ruby darted out of the room and into the next. It was empty of Grimm, and full of documents like the previous, but there was a door on her right. She took it, and found herself basically face-to-stomach with a huge black mass.

The Ursa was easily as big as a Major, but the lack of spikes of its back told her it was a normal one. A very very big 'normal' one. There was nothing else that could hint at a mutation, just like with Beowolves. It seemed surprised by her sudden appearance, and Ruby immediately capitalized that by shooting off and slicing across its chest.

Instead of roaring in pain and stumbling back, however, the Ursa just growled in anger and tried to crush her with a huge paw. Surprised by the lack of reaction to her quite precise hit, Ruby jumped back and severed the offending paw. Again, the Grimm didn't even seem to register the pain, and the girl found herself stepping back again to dodge the following attack.

When her back hit the wall, she realized she had underestimated the Grimm's intelligence.

Usually, when Hunters called the Grimm 'mindless', they mistakenly used the wrong word. 'Mindless' either meant lacking of a physical brain, or lacking basic intellect. Both were wrong. Although Grimm anatomy was still inexistent, it was common knowledge that a hit to the head or to the chest of a Grimm usually killed it instantly, as well as cutting it in two or severing its head. That proved that Grimm did have vital spots, and thus they probably had organs, though ones humans could not discern when the Grimm flesh was cut open.

The second meaning of 'mindless', lacking basic intellect, was likewise wrongly believed true. Completely lack of brain functions would make the Grimm like statues. Mobility functions, or even just aggressiveness, required intellect to work. Even the fact that Grimm did not attack anything that moved, like other Grimm, spoke of how they could realize what they were attacking. Beowolves worked in packs and Nevermores could aim with their feathers, Boarbatusks charged their opponents with their signature rolling attack to protect themselves from hits, while Deathstalkers and Tajitsu ambushed their prey when they could. Grimm with armoured plates tended to try and shield themselves from attacks. All those actions spoke of an existing, if limited, intelligence.

The term 'mindless' was directed more to the reason for why the Grimm were so aggressive. The Grimm lacked a reason, and they could not be reasoned with.

However, Ruby had never gone to a Hunter Academy, and she had only received two years of _combat_ training from her uncle. She knew next to nothing about all the knowledge Hunters were supposed to have. Like, for example, the true meaning of the Grimm's mindlessness.

And thus Ruby fought Grimm as if they could only roar, attack, and die. Sometimes she took in consideration their numbers. She never thought a Grimm could parry, or dodge, and surely she did not think the Ursa she was fighting could've trapped her in a corner.

She could've escaped. Her Semblance literally made her untouchable, after all. But she didn't want to, because that would prove Torchwick -and more recently, Mercury and Neo- right. That she was dead weight to them. She knew she was the youngest, and the worst in combat of the group. Even Jaune, who had literally no training and little skill, was just so tough he could tank anything and power through it. Fleeing from that corner, and thus from the Ursa, would've proven she had bitten off more than she could chew. And she wanted to prove the opposite.

Besides, if there was a will, there was a way.

The Ursa roared again and tried to crush her with the stump of its left paw. Quickly considering her chances, Ruby used the recoil of her scythe to jump over the limb, and then again to vault over the Grimm, scoring a long, if thin, cut on its neck. Landing in a crouch, she quickly stepped away from the oncoming attack. If the Grimm was immune to pain, then she couldn't rely on pain to distract it.

So that was its special power. Pain immunity. Tricky.

However, when the Ursa turned fully, she realized she had been wrong. Both the cuts she had scored on its body were already gone, and the stump was almost completely reformed as well. The Ursa had more than one power, apparently. Without wasting a second, she used Crescent Rose to propel herself up to its head, and slashed one of its eyes closed.

However, she was unprepared for the literal headbutt that followed. The Ursa hit like a train, and she crashed into the wall with a groan. Shaking her dizziness away, she quickly turned into rose petals to avoid the claw coming down on her. Taking advantage of the Ursa's temporary crouch, she jumped on its back and swung her weapon through its neck, beheading the monster and thus permanently killing it.

Jumping off the beast's corpse, she turned when she heard slow, deliberate clapping coming from the southern and eastern doorways. Roman and Neo at one, Mercury and Jaune at the one, had all be watching her. She blushed at Roman's sarcastic applause. "I was hoping I'd get rid of you for a second there, Red," commented the crook. "Alas, the Ursa disappointed me. Let's hope for the next Grimm."

"Don't joke on that!" exclaimed Ruby.

Torchwick grinned. "I'm not joking."

"Let's stop this before it even begins," Jaune cut in, much to Roman's, Neo's, and Mercury's displeasure. "We have something to do. You two can nab at each other all you want… _on the way back_."

"Yes _Mom_ ," grumbled the thief, shaking his head. "Ordered around first by the fire bitch, now by a kid. The great Roman Torchwick, reduced to babysitting."

"You're right, we should move," nodded Ruby, looking at the third, and last, door of the room, pointing north. "Who first?"

"Me," sighed Mercury, taking the lead. "Our tank second. Neo, keep an eye on Little Red. Roman, the rear. If there's space, Neo comes up front with me, Jaune too if there's enough space, while the redheads stay back and shoot. Everyone ready?"

The others nodded, and they all slowly moved into the next room, finding it… full of shelves. Not even a single stack of documents laid on the floor. In the shelves there was plenty of food, as if it had been restocked fairly recently. Roman warned everyone it might be poisonous as a trap, but no one had tried to take it. Mercury and Neo knew it as well, Ruby was against stealing if it wasn't necessary, and Jaune just didn't even care. The room looked completely… normal. Like the kitchen of a town's average house. It wasn't sparkling clean, but it wasn't dirty either. It looked used, too.

"Okay, so here is where they eat. Good to know," announced Mercury, moving to the next door and opening it. He stilled. "Well… shit. There's a lot of webs in here. Like, as thick as my arm. Grimm spiders, obviously. It fills the entire corridor except for a few spots. We could squeeze by, but that would make us perfect victims for the weaver."

"I hate Shadow Phobias," Jaune grumbled softly before raising his voice, "Okay, we cut or burn them. If you touch it, you'll get stuck, but I think we all know that. I suggest we use fire, if we can. It'll burn all the webs, and possibly hurt the weaver, unless it manages to flee. The walls are made of stone, so it might scorch them but it won't destroy the whole house."

Torchwick sighed and opened a few shelves. "Well, then let's use this stuff, at least." He rummaged through the items and found a few Fire Dust batteries for the Dust stove, and a lighter. With a smirk, he returned to the others and threw the batteries in the webs, as far as he could throw them, before placing the last on the first line of web. "Stay back… it's a friendly suggestion."

Everyone backed away and into the kitchen. Roman used the lighter to kindle the web near the battery, so to give himself a few seconds. Then he ran back, slammed the door shut, and stepped back. A few moments later, a series of explosions shook the doorframe, and smoke began to seep from under it. A screech of pain told them that the Shadow Phobia had not liked the surprise, wherever it was.

Mercury nodded to the thief and opened the door, allowing the smoke to disperse before stepping into the corridor. The walls bore small marks of scorching, and almost all the webs had either disappeared entirely, or had been reduced to smoking strands dangling in the air.

"From the Dust's Guide for Beginner Users, So Easy Even Grimm Can Understand: _'Fire Dust makes fire and heat. Crystals or powder can explode. Warning: this Dust is extremely volatile. Do not place Fire Dust near a source of intense heat or, Oum forbid, fire, if you don't want an explosion to happen.'_ " Roman grinned at the others. "Fire Dust is ground and cut at cold temperatures for a reason."

"Nice thinking. I hadn't thought of that," admitted Jaune. "I thought we would've had Ruby use her scythe, or me using my sword. Roman, no innuendo intended, stop grinning like an idiot."

"Sorry to interrupt, but we have a Grimm spider to kill," Mercury butted in. "And it's in the room before us. I see a bladed leg trying to hide in the stairs. Oh, right, there are stairs that go down. I guess that's the entrance to the lab proper."

"It probably is," nodded Jaune.

"Well, watch me then." Mercury shot off with those parting words, entering the room in a flash and slamming his armour boot down on the leg he had spotted earlier, cracking it in two.

The large spider Grimm screeched in pain again, and exited its hiding spot on the stairs to engage the grey-haired assassin. It looked exactly like a huge black spider with white armoured thorax and red eyes, but its jaws and legs had been sharpened into white bone blades. With another screech, the Grimm raised its forelegs and tried to slash at him.

Mercury, however, was far quicker. With two shots from his boots' shotguns, he broke two of the creature's leg joints. Rolling under the body, he then ran up the opposite wall and somersaulted over its body, where the creature could not reach. As Ruby and Jaune looked at him with awe, and Roman and Neo with boredom, he unloaded several shells into the creature's head, effectively putting it down for good. Crunching its head onto the ground was just an added safety measure before he jumped off. He glanced at Ruby with a cocky smirk. "That's how you kill Grimm, Red."

Ruby pouted as she stomped past him. Without a word, the others followed her down the stairs.

/-/

The raven watched silently as Yang Xiao Long and Weiss Schnee were escorted back to their room by Glynda Goodwitch herself. The two looked both ashamed of themselves, and resigned to their fate. Another bird, a crow, was perched on a lamppost, watching and cawing loudly as the group passed under it. Goodwitch stopped and looked at it with sad eyes, mouthing 'I'm sorry' to the bird before continuing to lead the two new criminals to where they would be kept until their families decided what to do with them.

After the three disappeared from view, the crow cawed sadly one last time, and flew away in a flutter of wings. The raven, however, was still staring at where they had disappeared. It was not making any sound, standing so still one could've mistaken it for a statue. Then the raven finally unfroze and took off, flying deeper into the trees it had been hiding among.

A red, swirling portal later, no bird could be seen in Beacon's courtyard.

Far, far away, back at her bandit camp, Raven Branwen sat pensively. Her daughter had grown strong, and ruthless. Maybe she had underestimated her. It was time she and her daughter had a long overdue talk. And of course, she would never visit empty-handed. She had a gift she was sure Yang would've appreciated.

She brought freedom.

"Vernal," she called quietly, knowing that her faithful lieutenant would hear. As expected, the brunette immediately appeared at the tent's entrance. "Prepare another tent. We might have visitors tonight. And if things go well, we might have two or more new members of our tribe."

 ** _Okay, let me explain: Ruby, in 2 (TWO!) years became super uper duper strong. For her classmates. Fine, but then I'll have to take away all non-combat-related knowledge from her. Rooster Teeth makes a mistake we writers call OPS (the irony): Over Power Scaling. It means that all the characters are extremely powerful. The problem:_**

 ** _The planet should not be able to resist so many overly destructive fighters on it._**

 ** _If you use a normal Power Scaling, it's fine. Villains can be stronger than heroes (within reason and logic), and everything. But if every time you f*** up and have a character that is too strong you just introduce ANOTHER, STRONGER character, you're just increasing the problem and shifting it on the other character! Rooster Teeth either does that, or commits a PSB, a Power Scaling Breach: meaning that, after having established a set Power Scaling, they suddenly change it for no other reason than to save the plot. That is poor writing._**

 ** _Power Scaling is not just combat skills though. RT made all non-Jaune characters excellent in literally everything they did (except a few mistakes just for shits'n'giggles). But the point is, for example, WHERE DID REN AND NORA LEARN HOW TO DANCE?! They are orphans! And Pyrrha?! She should've trained to fight, not to dance! The point is: Rooster Teeth forgets that their characters are still people, even if virtual ones. People cannot know everything. People are rarely good at everything._**

 ** _So, to avoid a Over Power Scaling, you need to tone down those characters._**

 ** _So I did. Roman is stronger that in the show: he's still a veteran Hunter, even if he's got half the skill Qrow has. Neo is a freaking assassin. Mercury literally trained his whole life with the harshest training you can imagine. Jaune is not skilled, but he can tank a freight train crashing into him head-on (he's the only one who got hit by the Beowolves, after all). I made a quick powertable for them:_**

 ** _Ruby - Huntress lvl 9_**

 ** _Jaune - Guardian lvl 10, Defender lvl 3 (both are non-combat-related)_**

 ** _Roman - Rogue Hunter lvl 14_**

 ** _Neo - Assassin lvl 19_**

 ** _Summer - Huntress lvl 20_**

 ** _Taurus - Commander lvl 16_**

 ** _Mercury - Assassin lvl 24_**

 ** _Qrow - Hunter lvl 26_**

 ** _This is what I did, yes. I'm sick of fics where Ruby is super-strong no matter who her companions are. And I'm sick of fics where the main character has the highest combat skills among all. In here, Roman and Ruby both think quicker than Jaune, basically everyone fight better than him, even though he can outlast them, everyone is more agile, everyone is more skilled, but still I managed to have Jaune as the worst in combat... without having him being BAD at fighting. And I got a headache for thinking about all of that._**

 ** _Finally, one last thing before I'm out, Raven. In canon, she 'waits until Yang is strong enough'. And then, of her whole fucking tribe, only her and Vernal are worth mentioning. -_-' Total bummer. Here, she realizes her daughter is stronger than most of her tribe, and wants to get her on her side._**

 ** _Yang is not evil, nor is Weiss. Weiss wants to know the truth, and she's prideful. Yang is super-worried for Ruby._**

 ** _Until next time,_**

 ** _Khor Evik Vlakhavlakh_**


	16. Of Deals and Devils

**_Slightly longer chapter than usual. Meh, not a problem. But anyway, first a Khor rant. If you don't like it, skip to the chapter._**

 ** _I saw V6. Not the last episode yet, but I have spoilers for that already. And my opinion is... disappointing. I am disappointed in many things, but there are a few that really irk me._**

 ** _One, Bumblebee being forced. Now, before you start to shout at me, and sorry BlackSun shippers, I do ship Bumblebee, though not as much as I ship Lancaster. I do. And that's why I'm pissed. In V1 to 3, Bumblebee was natural. Two people looking out for each other and caring for each other, even if it was a little one-sided. Then we have a whole 2 years timebreak to when they meet up again in Haven, at the very end of V5. So V6 would've been Team RWBY mending bridges... no. Apart from Yang's and Blake's issue, Team RWBY seems to have forgotten that they have spent 6 months together and then 2 years apart. So of course they are back together. Thankfully the writers didn't just put Yang and Blake as super-friends again just like that. No, it took us an entire volume of forced Bumblebee to reach that. I mean, keep it natural, don't force it! But the worst part? When Yang comforts Blake after the fight with Adam. Why? SPOILERS: sure, it's nice... if it were they've just murdered Adam in cold blood! He was unarmed and Auraless. I'm not saying they shouldn't have... just that you can't put a romantic moment after something like that and expect the fans to view the heroes as good people!_**

 ** _Second, Adam himself. Adam has the fucking brand of the SDC branded with fire on his left eye (which is quite haunting), and yet Blake seems to already know, and Yang doesn't even blink at seeing it. You are seeing a PERSON being branded like that, and you just go with the flow? I now can understand why Adam was like that! Not condone, but understand! Like I can understand but not condone what Ozpin did! They had reasons! But no, Ozpin is a horrible manipulator and Adam is a psychopath. True, but they are a manipulator and a psychopath who have reasons to be like that. Also, Blake's promise to Adam of not leaving his side, and Yang's reply of: "Did it promise that to you, or to the person you were pretending to be?" Uuuuh? What? What the hell is that? At Mt Gleen Blake states Adam is a person who believes firmly in the cause, then in V6 we see him slaughter White Fang men just because they disagreed, and he stalks Blake right to Argus. Why?! Then why didn't he stalk her into Beacon six seasons ago?! Why? Because they changed his character in these last two seasons. Turned it over._**

 ** _Moving onto Jaune. During the Breach and the Fall of Beacon, we see Jaune actually fighting. Not much, but fighting. In the second episode of V4, it is implied that Jaune is becomed obsessed with training and becoming stronger. I would hate to see canon Jaune suddenly becoming super-strong. That being said, it is illogical how they've handled him in these last 3 seasons. He can't fight. He's worse than at the Breach, really. Let's take the fight against the giant robot in V6 (Goooooldrake! Oops, sorry, wrong franchise). Ren can easily sink his weapons for a foot or so into the armoured plating of the robot, and he's physically among the weakest of the group. Jaune, who is physically among the strongest, with a two-handed hit, literally does nothing to the unarmoured joint he was hitting. I mean, I get that he's weaker than the rest, but 'weaker than the rest' does not mean he's the worst! It's like he hasn't improved since V1! In two years of training! That makes no sense!_**

 ** _And, the Big Bad Robot itself. Apparently Goldrake, that is hidden in the doctor's base, has more fans than I thought. Okay, so Atlas built a super giant robot on Mistral territory, and then left it in the hands of Cordovin. So what happened? A bunch of children stole her airship, and she went wild on their asses, basically zeroing everyone's Aura, Jaune's and Nora's in one single hit. She really bitch-slapped them. Anyway, she tries to brutally murder children (CHILDREN! She literally tries to point-blank shoot Ruby with the giant cannon made to destroy giant Grimm! Then, when the fight causes so much terror in Argus, she doesn't answer the base's call, and thus allow a swarm of Manticores and Sphinxes (I still believe sphinxes are not like that) into Argus, as well as a giant Leviathan. A Grimm Kanju or Grimmzilla, as many called it in the comment section. And after the Leviathan is dead, she allows the same children she was trying to brutally kill to reach Atlas._**

 ** _Also, if the villains steal something, it's bad, but if the heroes do it, it's for the greater good and the ones trying to stop them are in the wrong. Really, that speech made my respect for Ruby free-fall._**

 ** _But last! The Leviathan... like I said for the Sea Feilong, the sea dragon in V4, WHY THE HELL A WATER GRIMM CAN BREATHE FIRE/LIGHTNING?! Lightning is deadly in water, yes, but to itself too! And fire! FIRE! What the hell?!_**

 ** _Anyway, I'm done, have a nice read._**

Raven Branwen was ready.

Her lips twitched, almost betraying the smug smile she was inwardly feeling. She knew that if she played her cards right, she would've been able to get two more members of her tribe. Yang had searched for her for the longest time, offering her to be part of her mother's family after rescuing the little Summer look-alike that was Tai's other brat would've probably been too good of an offer for Yang to refuse. Raven knew Yang had searched for her for years, in a way disregarding the family she already had to find a family she never had. Even more so if Raven could help her protect Ruby.

Then there would be the Schnee girl, but Raven was pretty confident she wouldn't need much to convince her.

Preparing her odachi, she nodded to Vernal. "I will return shortly. Do not be seen unless it is strictly necessary, or you are instructed to by me. They know nothing of the Maidens, as such you do not need to pretend you are. If push comes to shove, we will kill them, but if they just refuse, we will send them back unharmed. Did I make myself clear?"

"Yes ma'am," nodded her lieutenant, a brunette with azure eyes. "But why should we not kill them? You said not to care about your birth daughter."

"And I don't. However, if Qrow finds out I killed her, and he would, things would get way more hectic for us. Despite my powers, Qrow is a skilled Hunter and he has powerful friends," retorted Raven, glaring at her subordinate. "So do not kill them unless it is strictly necessary."

When Vernal nodded in submission, Raven gave a satisfied huff and slashed at the air with her weapon before sheathing the weapon back in the scabbard. A swirling red portal manifested in front of her, and she could hear surprised gasps coming from the other side, mixed with the whirling sound of the portal itself.

Raven Branwen took a few steps into the gate, and felt her body be split and rebuilt thousands of miles away, in a small dorm room exactly like the one she had once lived in when she was in Beacon. The room was a mess, and a bed had even been upturned. However, those flimsy details were not what held her attention.

Four people stood in the room. Or rather, one stood, one laid sprawled, and two were sitting. A white-haired girl was sitting properly on the edge of a bed with equally white sheets, although her proper composure was ruined by the shocked expression on her face. A large brunette with small blue eyes laid sprawled on the floor, rubbing his jaw and glaring at her. A green-haired boy with a ridiculous hairstyle and thinner than Vernal was staring at her like one would stare at the most beautiful person in the entire universe. Too bad he wasn't of her liking, she wouldn't have minded the age difference otherwise. And finally, standing fiery in the middle of the room, obviously having just socked the big guy in the jaw, there was a blonde girl with red eyes staring at her in pure shock.

Her daughter should've really remembered to close her mouth when she was surprised.

"M-Mom?" Raven's stare hardened at the stammer of confusion and surprise, but she let it go for the time being. The girl was already stronger than most of her tribe – combined, if she might add. Raven's tribe did not have any minimum IQ requirement to enter, after all, so Raven could forgive Yang's low intellect. Although she did feel a tinge of disappointment. She was supposed to be her daughter after all, and Raven herself was nothing short of a clever.

"I have no time to waste in wishy-washy pleasantries," she spoke bluntly, without sugarcoating the truth. "I have an offer for you. An offer that can bring you more or less whatever you want, as long as I get something in return. Included, Yang, freedom to search for your dear missing sister."

Her point was being lost in her hurry, she noted. The four students, thus the two she was interested in, were staring at her blankly, not understanding how urgent the matter was.

As always, she had to be the smartest of the bunch. Fortunately, having experience leading her tribe, she was more or less used to have to explain to the less clever ones.

"My name is Raven, and I'm the leader of a group that can grant you the power to do whatever you want, but we are mostly 'civilians', so to speak. Four Hunters added to our group would be an incredible boon and as such I'm here to offer you a deal," she spoke again, this time measuring her words, but still quickly enough to prevent violent reactions from happening. She did know of Yang's temper, after all. "We need more fighters. We can give you whatever you want, be it power, information, or even just a place to stay at."

Since she wasn't really interested in the two boys, she turned first to face Yang. "Ozpin and Qrow are not letting you search for your sister. I'll be honest, I don't care about finding her, but if you join our tribe -even just temporarily-, we could greatly have a gain from this deal. I would allow you to search for the little Ruby, as well as offering you my tribe's support whenever it's needed." She smirked. "If you are interested, we can talk on the other side of this portal. I'm sure Ozpin has been monitoring this room and people are on their way. You only have one chance to rescue your sister. I may even have a way to find where she is…"

Yang still seemed in shock from her arrival, but talking about her sister had the effect Raven had hoped. The girl focused on that instead of anything else. A one-track mind, Raven noted. How pitiful, yet so very useful to her. "Only until we find Ruby," Yang growled in a tone that said the matter wasn't over.

"Of course, I'm not foolish enough to try and keep you for any longer, especially not with Ozpin and Qrow knowing I have you," scoffed the bandit leader. Then she turned to the Schnee, who was currently glaring at her from her short height of five feet something. "And what about you, Weiss Schnee? Or should I only say Weiss? I doubt your father will be happy to hear his daughter and heiress has been arrested for aggression to several civilians, and extreme damage property. You have literally nothing to lose. Would you prefer to be taken back to Daddy and beg for his forgiveness in vain, or would you prefer to make a life of your own? Again, you do not need to stay with my group forever. You can grow stronger and take a Huntress license, and then make a name for yourself."

Weiss seemed to twitch. "How do you know how my father would react, and why do you think I want to make a name for myself?" she asked hostilely.

Raven laughed at her naivety. She had missed being the most intelligent person in the room. Alas, Ozpin was probably coming at full speed. They had a minute left at most. "Weiss, everyone knows how your sister fled from your father, even abandoning you with him, to join the military. And you wouldn't be the first to have lived in someone else's shadow. You are judged for your last name, not for who you are." Raven smirked at her as she took a step back toward the portal. "Besides, your father has probably disowned you already. If you come with me, I can remove those Aura collars you have to wear, and if you wish even provide you with new weapons. You do not have to join my group permanently. Consider this… a necessary evil."

"W-Wait!" exclaimed the big brunette. "You can't just do that! That's going too far!"

Raven pressed a button in her sheath and her odachi flew to hit the boy in the forehead hilt-first. As it bounced back, Raven snatched it out of mid-air and pointed it at the boy's throat. "You cannot command them. You are not even team leader. If they wish to join me, then so be it. But I suggest you to choose _now_. Ozpin might be seconds away from arriving."

Yang and Weiss exchanged a glance. "We'll talk more later," stated Yang, glaring at Raven, before the two of them ran into the gate. With a victorious chuckle, Raven followed them, closing it behind her to prevent the two idiots from doing the same.

A long talk awaited her on the other end of the portal, but it would be worth it. Eventually, she would have two more members of her tribe – even if not for long.

 _'Thank you Ozpin,'_ she gloated silently. _'Once again you have done the work, and I have reaped the fruits.'_

/-/

"There are five Ursai, and one seems a Major."

Roman's voice was plain deadpan, and that alone spoke of just how messed up the situation was. The five of them had just climbed down the last steps of the stairs, and from the room adjacent to theirs, growls were coming. Of course their 'scout', the thief, had returned with very bad news.

"Are they mutated?" asked Jaune.

"Is the sky blue?" retorted the crook. "Of course they are mutated. And they are all pretty fucking big. I don't normally swear, but I think I can excuse for this: we're fucked."

"You might not be able to fight them all, but we can," scoffed Mercury, peering into the room. "Sure, they're big, but we are all fast fighters. I suggest each of us takes on an Ursa. I can take the Major, no worries. I could probably kill them all, given a bit of time and without extra surprises. I'm sure Neo's not too far behind me, and Jaune… skill he might not have, but he is probably stronger than those Ursai, and faster too. He can just fight savagely and he would still win. We already saw Red taking down one. So really, the only reason why you'd be worried is for yourself."

"Red took a hit," noted Roman, "a pretty big one. She might not have enough Aura to survive, and Blondie would wail on me if she died."

"Then there is a very simple solution," stated Jaune, offering his hand to Ruby, who took it. "I can use my Semblance on her and Roman. You two should be able to avoid being hit at all. We kill these, and we'll be five Ursai closer to our goal."

"Just how many Grimm are in here?" grumbled Torchwick, making Neo giggled soundlessly. "Is this a lab, or a zoo?"

"A lab with Grimm guards, maybe?" offered Ruby as she and Jaune glowed white. The boy then took his hand from hers and offered it to the thief, who took it as well and established the connection. "So they can avoid spending on Hunters?"

"When you want to keep out the Grimm, you hire people," shrugged Mercury as everyone got ready. "When you want to keep out the people, because Grimm aren't a problem to you, you use Grimm."

"Whatever, let's get my mother," Ruby murmured softly, eyes locked on the doorway.

Torchwick nodded and Mercury darted in first, dodging the first and second Ursai as he aimed for the Major. Instead of attacking it outright, however, the young assassin used the recoil from his boots to somersault over the Grimm, press his feet against the opposite wall, and then attack it from behind. At the same time, that manoeuvre made all Ursai turn to face him, and placed the Major between himself and the others, acting like a meat shield.

Neo was the second to join the fray, gunning to the farthest Ursai in the northern half of the chamber, using her teleportation Semblance to appear on the Ursa's head and sink her weapon into its exposed neck. Unfortunately the tough hide was too thick to be completely pierced through, and since the Ursa could not feel pain, the attack had only barely wounded it, a slight injury it would heal in a matter of seconds. Eyes narrowing, Neopolitan prepared herself for the quick scuffle.

Ruby and Jaune shot off at the same time. Despite his nature as a tank, Jaune's Grimm side naturally enhanced his speed and agility, kinda like Aura enhanced a Hunter's body. Even then, the boy was vastly outmatched by the redhead's speed, even if she did not use her Semblance to aid herself. Ruby reached the Grimm first, despite having crossed more than three times the space, landing a single devastating slash across its right side, taking advantage of the fact it was still distracted by Mercury's and Neo's incursions. Jaune, instead, turned into hybrid just before sinking his claws into the Ursa's arm and ripping it off at the shoulder.

Torchwick was the last to actually engage, but he used his hand cannon to grab the Ursa's attention and keep it away from Jaune, the nearest fighter. The large, hunkering beast turned just in time to receive a second explosion straight in the face. While it couldn't feel pain, it could feel impacts, and that was enough to finally convince it Torchwick was a better target than Jaune. The thief grinned, ready to finally dust his Hunter skills off after years of barely using them.

The fight took less than two minutes to wrap up.

Mercury was taking on a Major, but he was the most combat-skilled fighter of their entire group. He used shells from his shotgun boots to momentarily cripple the creature's legs, making it buckled under its own weight. The arms were just an added bonus before the assassin curb-stomped the monster's face with glee, making sure to splatter the black stuff all over the floor.

Neo wasn't too far behind. After seeing that her parasol's tip blade could not pierce deep enough, she had drawn the hidden rapier she kept in the weapon, using the parasol to deflect a hit and then jumping three times to get to its head, once on its arm, once on its knee, and once on the ceiling itself. Coming down from the roof of the chamber, she quickly impaled the beast's unarmoured neck with the longer blade. It still was a bit challenging to sink it deep enough, but the beast's collapse told her she had succeeded.

Between Ruby, Roman and Jaune, the youngest of the three was the fastest to get things done. Having learned from the Ursa in the room upstairs, she didn't leave it time to really attack as she severed both arms with two mirrored twirls of her scythe. Seeing it defenceless -she refused to say _armless_ as Yang would've done-, she used Crescent Rose's recoil to reach high enough, and spun on herself for added measure, ending the fight by instant decapitation.

Jaune won the race with Torchwick just by mere seconds. After having maimed the monster, the boy plainly blocked the next attack by grabbing the offending arm. Rather than tearing it off as well, however, he chose to pull the monster and make it stumble forwards. Within the reach of his razor-like claws, that sank into its throat like hot knives through butter.

Torchwick himself wasn't having a hard time, but rather a fun time. He dodged every hit, knowing that his Semblance was only useful against hits he could parry without being crushed, and retaliated every time with an explosive bullet to the creature's mask, too often for it to completely regenerate between hits. When he saw everyone else was done as well, he simplistically fired three rapid shots at the monster's face, killing it by severe brain trauma.

Whistling lightly, he smirked at Mercury. "Heh, guess what, our combat expert was right after all. It was easy peasy."

"Don't get cocky, you wasted many hits," noted Mercury. "How is everyone with ranged?"

Neo and Jaune shrugged, since neither had a ranged option. Ruby still had twenty rounds left, but she unfortunately had not special rounds. Mercury sighed before passing her three Fire Dust universal rounds. When she stared at him, he just shrugged. "What? It's logical. You are the best sharpshooter we have. As for why I have those, you never know when you'll end up using a different kind of gun. Better be prepared. Those aren't very powerful, just 10% of Fire Dust, but they should do the trick."

Turning to Roman, everyone let out a sigh as the thief tried and failed to look nonchalant. "How much, Roman?"

"Well, I don't use real bullets since I would need to reload too often, I instead use whole Fire Dust crystals implemented in the firing mechanism to chip off some Dust and send it flying," explained the thief, opening his cane's reloading chamber and for once looking sheepish as they all stared at the almost-gone crystal. "I may have four shots, five if I'm lucky and this is bigger than it looks."

"You should wish your brain too is bigger than it seems too," grumbled Mercury, as Jaune sighed and rubbed his forehead, heedless to the Ursai's Grimm essence seeping into his legs. "No matter, let's just go."

"We might have a problem," Ruby called from the doorway. She shrank slightly under Mercury's glare. "I… I just want to save Mom, I thought it couldn't hurt to scout ahead… I'm the fastest, I could've just sped back here in case of danger…"

"And what if-" Mercury was cut off as Neo elbowed his side. Jaune took over. "What's the problem?"

"More webs. Way more." Ruby pointed down the corridor, that continued sharply to the left from the door. "We might just have to use the remaining Fire Dust in Roman's cane. And I won't be able to use the Fire Dust bullets, we need those too."

"Of fucking course!" swore Mercury, as everyone walked up to the younger girl. "Why can't anything go our way for once?"

"Maybe because we are in a lab where Grimm are modified and people are tortured?" offered Torchwick, already removing the Fire Dust from his cane. "I'm sure even luck has taken one look at this place, and run screaming."

"It's not this terrible," grumbled Ruby. "We haven't even found… anything."

Everyone knew she had wanted to say anyone, and she knew it as well. Mercury sighed before Neo began to type on her Scroll. "What's up now?"

 _"Ktchn stck F Dst 0, but here? Srch?"_

"Neo makes a good point," nodded Roman. "Let's quickly search if there's something here."

"This looks like a storage room, where stuff for the lab is kept," Mercury scoffed, revolted, as he neared a table full of dull knives. "It seems the good doctor uses these often, if the edges are anything to go by."

"More often than you think, less often than you fear," replied Jaune, about to open a drawer when Neo sharply whistled. When she had everyone's attention, she grabbed something from the drawer she was currently inspecting and held it up.

"That's Adam Taurus's katana," sighed Torchwick, shaking his head at the sigh of the pure black sheathe and blood red blade, with a wilted rose on the hilt. "And now we know why he disappeared a month or so ago from the White Fang. He ended up here, the poor bastard."

Neo shrugged and placed the weapon aside, pulling a black suit with red accents out from the drawer. A wilted rose in red laid in a white pattern of the back. She also pulled out a White Fang mask.

"I think we can agree he didn't survive," noted Mercury, chuckling dryly. "Look if Red's mother's stuff is also here."

Neo nodded and opened another drawer, immediately finding their target. They were in adjacent drawers, after all. She pulled out a long, slightly curved katana-like weapon, red sheathe and hilt with a white blade, paired with a shorter version of the same weapon, in the inverse colour theme.

Ruby's eyes went wide. "Mom's daisho and wazikashi. Howl and Whisper."

Neo pulled out a set of clothes obviously belonging to the woman who also had owned those swords. There was a long, flowing hooded white cape much similar to Ruby's, paired with a red corset with white laces. Although while Ruby had a skirt and stockings, her mother had red leggings with white rose patterns. Both had black combat boots.

Roman snorted and grabbed the whole pile of things. "Okay, if those two are still alive, we get them clothes and weapons so hopefully they can fight their way out of this too. If they aren't… Blondie, take the katana. Wield it like your sword, but that's a better weapon. Keep the brat's mother's stuff too, if she's dead Red will take it, otherwise you are the one who can be hindered a little, plus the strongest."

Mercury nodded at Torchwick's reasoning, and they quickly pushed the clothes in Jaune's travel backpack. Torchwick found a way to attach the katana to his right hip while keeping the daisho and wazikashi on his left. "There. If you need it, you can even use both, you're more than strong enough to handle some unbalance due to the fact they are not made to dual-wield with each other, but otherwise you should be fine."

"But back to the problem of the webs, what do we do?" asked Ruby.

"We have no time to go back into town and buy some Dust, but I'm sure there is some Dust here. This is the storage room, after all." Mercury was shocked when Ruby actually grabbed his arm and forcefully stopped him from continuing the search. "Whoa, what now, Red?"

"Our fights must've alerted whoever is in here. My mother might be under the knife right now, or being kept hostage as we speak. We don't have any more time," she commanded in a strangely hard voice.

Just as strangely, Mercury didn't argue. The opposite, actually. "You finally grew up, Red," he scoffed, freeing his arm but heading for the door. "Took your sweet time coming out of childhood."

"Do not blame her for that. Everyone here has had a very unique life or is well past childhood, it is not fair to be mistreating her for not being an adult at fifteen," mumbled Jaune, catching up with them together with Torchwick and Neo. "So, we use our Dust?"

"I have other five shotgun Fire Dust shells," sighed Mercury, taking them out of his ammo packs. "Those, added to Red's shells and Roman's crystal, should be enough. Let's not use them all together, though, better to spare them."

They all nodded and quickly used three of the shotgun shells to lit the webs on fire.

The corridor was so thickly packed with webs that the flames were suffocated after just half a dozen yards of burning. Using the last two shotgun shells didn't help much either, but at least it burned all the webs until they reached a door. However, reaching the door held consequences of their own.

A large creature with eight bladed legs like the one guarding the stairs hovered by the door, its wicked red eyes watching them intently. After Mercury viciously stomped its leg when it tried to reach them, the creature seemed content with waiting. However, the creature was still not smart enough to understand the danger.

"Let's use the remaining Dust," offered Mercury, crouching slightly to look at the room from under the body of the giant spider Grimm. "I can't see anyone in that room but three of those Shadow Phobias. Full of webs too. The opposite door is not narrow enough to keep them from going there, but they wouldn't be able to fight in that space. It's like four or five feet wide, those are eight feet wide. I say we light them on fire and wait a little."

"I'm all for not fighting," shrugged Torchwick, handing him the Dust crystal. Ruby hesitated for a second, but then she returned the Fire Dust cartridges. Mercury grinned at the monster as he threw the Dust under its legs and into the webs.

"Sayonara, asshole." The assassin fired a single shot to light the Dust, and then dived to the side, not too keen on being caught in a second Dust explosion. The one caused by Torchwick had been enough already. Sometimes he still felt phantom pain to his back.

The Dust did its job, burning the creatures as well as the remaining webs. Their shrill screeches covered the sound of flesh being cut and crushed for a few seconds, but eventually the last too fell to Neo's thin rapier, and the way was clear once again.

"We better get going," stated Ruby, hurrying to the door. Cursing her, Mercury followed, and the others after him.

"MOM!"

Ruby's high-pitched scream told Jaune everything he needed to know. Summer Rose was there, and she was alive, even if probably not in the best shape. He rounded the corner and found the young girl kneeling inside a cell whose bars had been savagely slashed off. Crescent Rose laid at her feet, forgotten. The sound of a scoff came from the cell next to it, and Torchwick quickly checked it out with Mercury and Neo.

Jaune, instead, headed for the woman he had kept alive for ten years without knowing nor wanting.

She was a far cry from the healthy and beautiful Huntress he had met so much time ago. Her beauty was marred by the exhaustion and the starvation, but Jaune could see her eyes shining like stars as she held onto her daughter, a daughter she hadn't seen in ten years, but who she knew was there and missed her mother.

Jaune knew there was so much going through the hearts and the minds of both women, but they couldn't waste time.

There would be time for teary reunions and all later. They had a mad doctor to hopefully hack into pieces, and a lab to get out of.

His eyes softened as he continued to look upon the pair. _'Who am I kidding? I would've done the same had it been my mother or one of my sisters,'_ he told himself. _'How can I interrupt something like this? Something so deep and important they don't even seem to be able to find words?'_ He was right, both women could only hold each other and cry. Happy tears or not, he didn't and couldn't know. He had never rescued a family member long believed gone before, so he really didn't know. All more reasons to let them be.

But it was also true that they had limited time, and that Ampere or even Watts might be waiting for them who knew where. He sighed. Had it been up to him, he would've left them have their reunion. He knew Ruby would've probably cried herself to sleep, and if Summer was anything like her daughter, she too would've. But it wasn't up to him, and they didn't have all day.

He stepped forwards and placed a hand on each of their shoulders, startling the both of them. Summer seemed more scared than startled, though, and he grimaced before turning back into human, knowing he had just terrified her. "Listen, we can get out of here, but we need to do it soon. Once we're out and safe, I promise you will have your moment, but not now. I'm sorry."

Ruby shot him a betrayed look, but she too knew he was right. She dried her tears in her sleeve and then looked at her mother. A mother she hadn't seen in ten years, but that she could still remember hazily. And going by what she remembered, Summer Rose had really changed much. The skin clung to her bones like a skeleton, and her eyes were so sunken they seemed about to disappear into their sockets. Her clothes didn't seem too worse for wear, but the body underneath those clothes was on the verge of starvation, and had been so for Gods knew how many years. Ruby felt the tears in her eyes begin to fall anew as she took in in just how bad of a shape her mother was. She might not even make it out of there alive.

Then her eyes fell on the collar she was wearing, and she glanced at Jaune, who nodded and grabbed the collar, using his Grimm strength to snap it in two, even if it still took him quite the effort. Summer Rose, however, did not revel the newfound freedom. Instead, she slumped down even further, weakly shaking her head. "You've arrived too late," she murmured hoarsely.

"Without her White Glow thing, Ampere finally managed to break her," a new voice, pained by firm, spoke up suddenly. Jaune turned marginally to see a man stumbling to the entrance of the cell, nodding at Summer. He looked like he had been put through a meat grinder. His body had clearly been abused of as it presented bruises and fresh wounds, but it was his face what caught Jaune's eye. He was obviously a Faunus, as the two black horns in his red-brown hair proved. Yet, Jaune's focus was on the word 'SDC' branded with fire over his left eye. While his right eye was light blue, his left one had red sclera and a white pupil instead of pupil and iris, making it look haunting to most.

Adam Taurus.

Jaune nodded at him before looking down at the woman. He felt Ruby grip his arm, and he looked up. There was a fire burning in her eyes. "Then the White Glow is going to heal her."

 ** _Well, nice I guess. So Raven is planning on keeping them for only a while... is she? Surely looks like it. And Oz, you do not have a speed Semblance, you cannot get there in under five minutes from your tower._**

 ** _I don't have much to say, especially because I'm currently too distracted to remember the whole chapter so I won't comment on everything. But let me tell you that these are the names of the characters' weapons:_**

 ** _EDIT: I've been told that Harbinger as Qrow's weapon is canon, so here I am, working my ass off, and still I have to bow to canon. Meh, it's not a big deal, as long as I don't have to write what they show and nothing else (that'd kind of kill the whole point of fanfiction)._**

 ** _Ruby - Crescent Rose_**

 ** _Summer - Howl and Whisper (Howling wind, whispering wind, get it?)_**

 ** _Taurus - Wilt and Blush_**

 ** _Torchwick - Melodic Cudgel_**

 ** _Neo - Last Kiss (not sure if there's a canon name but whatever)_**

 ** _Mercury - Bullet Hell (it was this or Shellstorm, I chose this)_**

 ** _Qrow - Harbinger_**

 ** _Raven - Herald (EDIT: still kept Qrow's and Raven's weapons as twins)  
_**

 ** _And with this, I really hope you've enjoyed this chapter! Sorry for the long rant at the start, had to get that off my chest._**

 ** _But finally, Khor Evik Vlakhavlakh introduces ammo! In most of my stories I never keep track of ammo, basically saying "It's Dust, it can fire forever" because that's how it looks like in the show, people can fire millions of bullets and the gun can eject millions of empty cartridges, but eventually no one ever runs out. Finally, Khor's in the circle of the ones who make guns run out! That's why a sword is better! ^^_**

 ** _Also, I know you want to kill me, but believe me: the initial ending for this chapter was worse. It was with the collar having an automatic reaction to being forcefully removed, and injecting a deadly poison in Summer's neck. And Jaune's Semblance alone could not heal her. It would've ended with Taurus getting an idea... and not telling it yet! Ha, so this is much more mellow._**

 ** _Until next time_**

 ** _Khor Evik Vlakhavlak_**


	17. Teamwork

**_And here I am! Just so you know, I initially wanted to post this on my birthday, the 8th, but then I said: "Do I really want to be remembered as the guy who updated his darkest story yet on his birthday, and was happy to do so?"_**

 ** _And... to be honest, the answer was "Yes", but then I thought about a surprise I could write instead, and I just went with that. So here is DarkerShade! I initially had a long long rant on RWBY (I have seen V6's last episode, by the way), but then I just went nah and dropped it. Instead, at the end of the chapter, if you are interested, I have a rant on why I don't like OP nor UP (UnderPowered) stories. Not just in the Jaune-centric section, all kind of those stories._**

Jaune reached down and grasped Summer's frail hand with his own, a gentle white glow filling the cell. Ignoring the woman's wide eyes, he focused on sending her his Aura. He looked back at Ruby and shook his head. "My Semblance can only do so much. She is starving and dying, even now I can only keep her from getting worse. She'd still die if we try to get her to the hospital on time, plus starvation to this point is… incurable. We need some kind of Healing Dust for this."

"You won't find any of that stuff," scoffed the Faunus, Adam Taurus. "That bastard is not a fan of healing. He prefers hurting."

"There must be a way!" exclaimed Ruby. "She has to survive!"

"Not everyone always survives, Ruby." The unusual use of her name made her glance at Torchwick. The thief was looking emptily at her mother, as if not really seeing her but someone else in her place. "And sometimes, you can do nothing about it."

"You'd better learn that quickly," Mercury added mercilessly, crossing his arms over his chest. "She's way past the saving point. All we can do now is to bring her body back once she does kick the bucket."

"How can you say that!?" Ruby's eyes filled with tears as she turned to her mother. "M-Mom, please, hold on a-a little more. Jaune will find a way to heal you, and I will help. Please, let me help you, Mom. Please, I can't lose you twice!"

Summer's lips twitched up in a light smile. "The White Glow is back," she said faintly. She didn't appear to have heard her daughter's words.

"We are wasting time," grumbled the grey-haired assassin, before he was rudely pushed aside by Torchwick, who took a small chocolate bar from his pocket.

"She needs food? We have it. We just have to force it down her throat."

"It's not gonna work," Adam Taurus commented, caustic. "She's past that point. Her body would just reject any food, and make her condition worse."

"There must be something we can do!" Ruby began to shake uncontrollably, and when Jaune placed a hand over her shoulder, she angrily swatted it aside. "I can't watch my mother die! I can't!"

"There might be something we can do," Taurus noted thoughtfully, looking down at the broken woman. "Run and flee these labs is an option, but I don't think you two would agree." A single glare from Jaune was his answer. "Well then, a solution there is. But it involves Summer actually hearing us, and you teaching us how to use your Semblance."

"Why are you trying to help her? You don't strike me as the merciful type."

Adam chuckled darkly. "Summer's been my only companion for one or two months in this hell. She's a human, but she's one who can understand the pain Faunus went through. Plus, out of all of you, she seems the one with the best relationship with the law, so keeping her alive and an ally might help me with the law in the future. So, little boy, I'm not doing this out of the goodness of my heart." The Faunus narrowed his eyes. "But still, her Aura is going down fast. So, what is your Semblance, and how do you use it to heal?"

"My Semblance allows me to create bonds with people and give them my Aura," explained Jaune, lifting his shirt to show the new rune on his chest, which was glowing white. "To activate a Soulmark, I have to intensively care for the person I'm marking. Usually thinking of them as an added sibling does the trick. To heal, I imagine it again when the mark's active, and it sends Aura into their body."

Taurus nodded before he glanced at Mercury. "You, grey-haired asshole, restrain Ruby. Don't let her move until I say so."

Mercury looked at Torchwick, who just shrugged, before stepping in the cell and forcefully drag Ruby back, heedless of her protests.

Once the girl was out of the way, Taurus knelt and harshly slapped Summer's cheeks. "Wake up, bitch. You don't get to call me Forfeit when all it takes for you is a day without your White Glow thing to make you give up." Summer blearily looked up at him, and he grunted, ignoring Ruby screaming at him to stop. "So, still alive it seems. I'm not sure if this is good or bad."

"S-Sadam?"

Taurus's teeth ground together. "No. _Adam_. Stop with your stupid nicknames." He slapped her once more before a growl was heard and a clawed white hand grabbed his wrist and _squeezed_. Withholding a groan of pain, he glanced at Jaune, finding him glaring at him. Looking down at his hand, it was pale, but otherwise completely normal. Had he imagined it? He shook the thought out of his head. He had other things to focus on. "Now, _Sadmmer_ , you don't have the Aura-binding collar any more, so you'd better use your Semblance. I want you to use it on everyone here, every single damn person in this cell. Do you understand?" She didn't reply, so he kicked her angrily, and this time he was sure he heard Jaune growl. The action, though, got him the woman's attention. "Your Semblance, now! Or are you so much of a coward that you'd prefer dying over fighting your way out of this hell?! You've been trying for eight and more years, and now that you have the chance, you just surrender?!"

Summer murmured something too faint for anyone to understand, but her body briefly glowed red before the crimson light shone from all the six people in the room. "D-one…"

"Everyone, hurry before she runs out of Aura, use the boy's Semblance on her! Her Semblance allows us to copy each other's Semblances!" Taurus lost both his calm and cold voice as everyone was startled by his sudden shout. Torchwick and Neo hesitated for only a second before stepping closer and placing their hands on Summer. Ruby wriggled free of Mercury's now slack grip and dashed over, grabbing Summer's free hand in her own, immediately glowing red from her own Aura activating. Mercury was the last, but he too didn't take more than a few seconds before grumbling and coming closer.

Torchwick, Jaune and Ruby had no problem activating Jaune's Semblance, one by sheer concentration, one by second nature, and the third by love alone. Taurus took more, but after a short while his dark red Aura joined the group's. Neo and Mercury added their own after almost another ten seconds, but cream and grey finally joined the mix that was forming on Summer's body.

The woman was healing, and at a ridiculous pace, that much was sure. Already she looked no more starved, and her hair had regained the shine it once held. It only took her a few more seconds before she was completely healed, Jaune's Semblance being aided by five more not only reverting the starvation advance but also giving her back the vital energy she so needed.

However, that recovery had a price.

Not even a minute of healing later, the red Aura disappeared from their bodies, and everyone aside from Jaune found themselves not able to push their Aura into the woman any more. Taurus grunted and rose from his crouch while Ruby continued to frantically try and help her mother. "That's it. If she heals, she heals. Otherwise she's dead."

"I didn't think… you'd be so quick to write me off…" A weak voice came from Summer's faint smile. The woman pushed herself to sit, albeit she had far too little energies to fight. "Thank you… Maybe you aren't as… grumpy as you look."

Adam scoffed while Torchwick and the two assassin rose from their crouches as well. "You can thank me if we get out of this," he snorted before snatching the katana from Jaune's side. "And this is _mine_ , human."

Ignoring Ruby holding onto her mother like her life depended on it, Roman sighed. "Great, now how are we with Aura?"

"Low," replied Mercury, frowning. "Maybe twenty percent or so."

Neo nodded, and both Ruby and Taurus grimaced in confirmation. "I'm still good," mumbled Jaune. "Should be about halfway down."

Taurus grunted as he hung his katana to his waist. "We can have a minute break, no more. Then we're killing that bastard."

"Watts?" inquired the blond of the group.

Adam shook his head. "No, Ampere. Watts is not here currently. But Ampere has a new toy for us."

"What is it?"

"He has a Mutated Deathstalker." Everyone winced at that. Deathstalkers were tough opponents on their own, adding whatever powers Ampere had given it to the mix was probably overkill. "We can't beat it head on. Anyone has an idea?"

Torchwick chuckled, and everyone turned to him. He smirked at them with a gleam in his eyes, "I do have a plan. Two, actually. I know by reputation what you can do with your sword, Taurus, and I think we can waste some of Merc's shells to charge you up. Plan B, if that doesn't work… well, it entails lots and lots of faith and hope."

/-/

Ozpin sighed as Qrow Branwen literally kicked his door in. The veteran Hunter looked every bit of the worried uncle he was, and every bit of the murderously furious uncle he was too. If Ozpin had to be honest, there had been only three other episodes of such anger from the man.

The first had been when Taiyang Xiao Long, his best friend, had told him to have knocked up his sister. The resulting fight had raged on for hours before Ozpin himself had intervened, to try and keep the two of them separated. Summer Rose and Raven Branwen had been enjoying the spectacle without taking any kind of action whatsoever.

The second had been when Raven Branwen had left everyone and everything to return to her tribe of bandits, and Qrow had been the one to find her to talk with her. Ozpin hadn't been there at the time, but when he had returned, the man had been absolutely livid.

The third had been when Qrow had found out that, in his grief, Taiyang had allowed his daughters to run away from home to search for Raven. After saving them, Qrow had had a _serious_ talk -that involved his weapon, Harbinger- with the father of the two, and Ozpin could still remember the fierceness of the Huntsman's eyes while he fought his mourning teammate.

His eyes now held the same ferocity as he reached Ozpin's desk and slammed his hands down, leaning in to glare at the Headmaster. "Where. Is. Yang."

Ozpin sighed and rubbed his forehead. Between Ms Rose's, Ms Xiao Long's, and Ms Schnee's disappearances, he was definitely running on fumes. He barely had time to manage the school itself, and that should've been his first and foremost duty. However, he knew that Qrow would never accept anything but the truth. And so, he gave him the truth.

"Raven Branwen has apparently recruited them in her bandit tribe," he sighed, lowering his head to avoid Qrow's scowl. "She phrased it as a temporary deal to help Ms Xiao Long find her sister. Ms Schnee joined them as she, her words, had nothing else to lose."

"Why there was no one guarding them, Ozpin?" Qrow growled.

"Because we did not expect Raven to try and pull something like this. All our resources had been pooled into finding your _other_ niece, and this school still has to have Professors working in it. And as you well know, having a student guard the room would've only led to Raven beating them, if not even killing," Ozpin retorted with just as much heat. "Remember Qrow, it is so easy to judge in hindsight. Too easy. Had I known this would've happened, I would've personally kept them in my office."

"Bullshit, Ozpin, had you known you would've called _me_ ," growled Qrow. "You have gotten old with age. For Dust's sake you were already Headmaster when Team STRQ was at Beacon! You would've lost against Raven." Qrow narrowed his eyes. "Had you known, you wouldn't have left them without Hunter surveillance, I know. This does not make me any less angry."

Ozpin sighed and closed his eyes. "Qrow… I don't know what to tell you. No, I actually know, I just wish I didn't have to." Opening his eyes again, he returned the Hunter's harsh glare. "I know you care for Ms Xiao Long. However… Ms Rose is still our priority. As bad news as Raven recruiting her is, Ms Rose might very well be in mortal danger right now. We need to focus on her first. And besides, she only joined Raven to find her sister."

/-/

"This is the stupidest plan I've ever heard," Taurus grumbled as they stood before the giant Grimm scorpion. It looked exactly like a normal Deathstalker, albeit a big one, except that where its armour should've been white, it was blood red, and its eyes were purple alongside its stinger.

Beside the giant Grimm, a man was waiting for them. He had short brown hair and faded green eyes, and was wearing a white lab coat with the tag _'Dr. E. Ampere'_ written on it. The man also had a glass of white wine in his left hand, and he waved at them the moment they came into his eyesight. "Ah, finally! You definitely took your sweet time, lads. I was starting to wonder if my little pets had really killed you!"

"They weren't a problem for us," Jaune snapped back, holding Summer's daisho, Howl, in his right hand while he supported the woman with his left.

"Oh, of course not!" laughed the man, his wine dangerously close to being spilled. "I mean, why would you? Had you had trouble with the first Beowolves, you would've just turned your back and taken down the door, and then run back to that pitiful village! You are strong indeed."

"Tsk. _I_ am strong," scoffed Mercury, crossing his arms over his chest. "Roman is basically deadweight in combat, he's a thief after all. And the midget can only fight humans. The loli is a speedster with no strength, and the blond is a medic. Really, I did all the work."

Ampere seemed delighted by the details. "Oh, really? Did you hear that, my dear?" he asked, turning to look at the stock-still Deathstalker. "He's so strong! But he will be no match for you, now will he? Take him down first, it'll be fun to see you play with the others!"

A single subdued roar was all the answer he got, but he seemed satisfied with that. "Oh, forgive my lack of manners. My name is Doctor Edward Ampere. Would you like some wine before you fight my little pet?"

"It's twenty times as big as you are, I wouldn't call it 'little'," snorted Roman. "But we'll have to decline. The kids can't drink, and your ex-prisoners probably aren't strong enough to withstand alcohol yet. As for me… well, if you have a cigar, I'd gladly take up your offer, but drinking before a fight is not in my style. I prefer to drink as celebration."

Ampere laughed louder, making Summer growl under her breath. "My, my, my! I really like you! I may even spare you just to see how long it takes for that sass to disappear!" the clearly deranged scientist exclaimed between guffaws. "Alas, that is not my job, but don't despair! As long as you keep this conversation entertaining, I won't order my pet to attack you! It is so rare to have so much fun these days!"

"Well, speaking about fun, don't you find it funny how you haven't even recognize me?" Jaune spoke up, noticing how Ruby tensed slightly. _'She'd better keep it together. If she ruins the plan, we are all doomed.'_

Ampere squinted at him before removing his glasses and cleaning them on his lab coat. When he put them back on, he blinked in surprise before he laughed again. "Oh my, isn't it young Archangel! Our failed Grimmling has returned to the nest! Would you like to try and improve your body once again?"

"No thanks, your failed experiments are already enough in number, let's not add another one to the list," snorted the boy.

"Oh, you hurt me with your words! And here I thought angels were supposed to be kind!" The man laughed at his own joke and spilled some of the wine from his glass. "Alas, I cannot deny your claim. My experiments on both my little slaves have resulted in nothing but failures. And while I blame the bull's failures to simple lack of time, eight years are too long to blame it on the subject. That protective barrier didn't help, either," he grumbled the last part, but everyone caught it easily.

"That subject is my mother!" Ruby shouted angrily.

"Oh, yes, I can see that!" the man returned to his jolly personality in a second. "What a wonderful subject you will be! Honestly, I might just keep you all, because you look so very interesting! Most of you, at least. It's been a while since I last had new subjects."

"Speaking 'bout that, why did you only keep Summer and Adam?" Mercury inquired tensely.

Ampere laughed more. "It's simple, really! I was going to get rid of the bull soon, but the woman cannot be killed. I only broke her so that she would be completely dependent on the medicine I lace her food with. Starvation can be held at bay with some mixes of my boss's invention. She would be forever starving, but also alive! Oh, I so wished I could bring her over the edge of death, but alas my boss denied me this pleasure."

"You're a bastard, Ampere," Summer growled weakly.

"No, I am a genius who does not stop to something as frivolous as morals to achieve great discoveries!" cheerfully replied the man. He gestured to the docile Deathstalker beside him with a smirk, "Look at this, for example! While the control I have over it is something given to me by my boss, the modifications I added to it are all fruit of my genius and Watts's resources! Now it is stronger, tougher, and has more special abilities to live up to its name!"

"And you have no idea why Summer was so important, don't you?" Jaune asked as everyone slowly advanced of a step, keeping a firm line. "I mean, why not just get someone else? Forgive my bluntness but you don't look like the type to care if you have to change subjects often."

"Oh, and I wouldn't, but my boss said that the silver-eyed woman could not be killed. He was working on something about her eyes." Ampere thought about it for a second. "Oh, yes, he said he was working on making Grimm immune to her eyes. I have no idea what that means, though. My boss did always know things about Grimm I never even dreamed about, and he mentioned them like they were common knowledge to him."

"Could this be what you did to me?" Jaune murmured at Ruby, bending slightly to his right. She shrugged imperceptibly.

"And what were you working on with me?" Taurus growled angrily.

"My, full of questions today, isn't it? Oh well, this just makes it more entertaining." Ampere sipped his wine before placing it down. "Honestly, I was just trying to see how much you could take before I broke you, but as a side project, I wanted to see if I could turn a Faunus into a human and vice versa. The power of messing with two entire races would've been so sweet to obtain… unfortunately, you proved me wrong. Ah well, that's too bad."

"Last question, Ampere," Mercury took a step away from his group and smiled cockily. "Just how far does your control over Grimm go? I mean, if you don't tell them to do something, they don't, or can you give them general commands like 'fight' or 'stand'?"

"It depends. I can do both. If I tell them to do something they will do it and nothing else until I give them a different order. If I use a general command, they are free to take liberties." Ampere gestured at the Grimm. "A demonstration is in order. Project MD, volley of bone spikes, frontal."

Everyone jumped out of the way, with Jaune dragging Summer with him, as four red bone spikes shot from the Deathstalker's mouth, embedding themselves in the opposite wall. Aside from that single attack, the monster did not move.

"See? Only what I say. So, if I say _fight_ …" His grin turned vicious. "You can guess what it happens. Project MD, _kill them all but the silver eyed ones_."

"Well… fuck," was all Mercury managed to say before the crimson Deathstalker roared, drowning out whatever other curses the boy said next. The room they were in was large, but thankfully not large enough for the Deathstalker to start simply trashing around to kill them all.

Though, had the Deathstalker begun to trash around, Ampere would've probably been caught in the spasms and splattered on the floor. More than one of them really liked that mental image.

They were taken away from such thoughts as the giant Grimm crawled forth, shooting more blood-red spikes at them. Roman knocked aside all the ones that targeted him, while the others wisely chose to dodge. Jaune used his inhuman strength to jump to the side, taking Summer with him.

The Mutated Deathstalker, however, was far from done. The room was large enough to allow it to fight at its best, especially since Deathstalkers were stationary fighters, not mobile ones. The ceiling was high enough to allow the tail to move freely, and any object in the room was easily toppled over and crushed by the monster. Ampere had simply chosen to stay behind the Grimm as they fought it, a smirk gracing his face as he pulled out pen and paper to keep notes.

The Grimm charged Mercury, the one who had claimed to be the most dangerous of them all. The blond one was also dangerous, but in a subdued sort of way, like a dormant strength instead of an active one.

Mercury skillfully dodged both pincers and landed a single kick on the monster's tough skin… a kick that did absolutely nothing. Cursing, he stepped back just in time to dodge another pincer-bash, and allowed Ruby to rush in with her scythe, but that too barely left a scratch on the deep red plate. Exchanging a worried glance, both jumped aside, dodging the oncoming volley of red spikes.

"I got the spikes! Blondie, time to use your strength!" Roman Torchwick exclaimed as he used his Semblance, Preemptive Parry, to deflect all the spikes aside. Leaving Summer to Neo, Jaune used Summer's daisho two-handedly, bringing down the weapon on the creature's pincer as it tried to bat him away. The Deathstalker screeched when the blade actually bit into the armour deep enough to reach the flesh. Its fury, however, didn't come without a price. The monster used its other pincer to bash Roman away, draining the remaining of his Aura. He had tried to block the hit, but his Semblance only allowed him to parry what he could physically parry, while the Deathstalker's hit was far too strong for anyone but Jaune to deflect or block, much less parry.

With a scream, Jaune attacked again, hoping to deal some damage, scoring a single hit on the Deathstalker's carapace. This time, however, the blade only indented the armour, without reaching the flesh underneath. Blood-red spikes flew from the monster's mouth, forcing Jaune to flare his Aura to actively protect himself, although he still was pushed back when the monster smashed its stinger in the ground before him.

"I'm ready!"

At the shout, Jaune threw himself to the side as the world became black. Adam Taurus held his sword in its sheath for a second, his hair glowing red, before he roared and unleashed Moonslice, Wilt's special Energy Dust ability. A crescent of glowing red energy flew from the blade as he drew it fluidly, and shot off to hit the Deathstalker square in the face, making it screech in even more pain as it cut through the armour and the plating, blinding one of its eyes.

However, it was not enough.

Taurus's eyes widened as the stinger reared and sprayed a jet of sizzling clear liquid at him. He managed to roll out of the way, but his left arm was caught by the spray, and he screamed as the acid bit into his flesh and Aura, quickly bringing him down to nil.

The Deathstalker roared triumphantly before a high-impact bullet hit the wound caused by Adam's slash. It shrieked and turned to face Ruby, who was standing before her mother as if to protect her from harm. She paled when she realized that she had actually made the monster focus on her, but her expression quickly turned into determination as she darted forth to attack with Crescent Rose.

At the same time, Mercury and Roman re-entered the fray, both targeting the Deathstalker's legs as Ampere's psychotic laughter sounded in the room, the mad scientist greatly enjoying the fight happening before his eyes. Mercury's boot found the armour just beneath the joint, but the blunt force was still enough to crack the bone, while Torchwick managed to hit the unarmoured 'knee' of the leg, caving it in. Distracted by their attacks, the Deathstalker did not notice Ruby landing a long slash where the left pincer joined the body, effectively rendering it useless for a short while.

She did not took in consideration the Deathstalker's endurance to pain. Ignoring the three hurt appendages, the monster swatted Torchwick aside with the stinger, destroying what little Aura he still had, and snatched the girl with its right pincer, screeching in triumph as she cried out in pain.

A second later, however, a short blade embedded itself between the upper half of the pincer and the lower one, where the armour could not reach to avoid hindering the claw. The Deathstalker screeched again and dropped the girl, who was caught by a weak but standing Summer Rose, her wakizashi held in her right hand while she supported Ruby with her left. Her silver eyes flashed dangerously. "Don't touch my daughter," she growled, and the Deathstalker actually took a step back.

However, Neo broke the spell. Taking advantage of the monster's temporary distraction, she somersaulted over its legs and landed on its carapace before sinking her hidden rapier in the wound caused by Taurus… or so she would've, had the wound still been there. Instead, all that remained was a deep scratch in the armour, where before had been a huge gash through plate and flesh, and the blade just bounced off the thick armour.

The Deathstalker roared and fired from its stinger again, forcing Summer and Ruby to roll to the right while Neo jumped off to the left, not willing to take her chances with the acid, especially after it had depleted Taurus's remaining Aura in just a glancing hit.

Jaune and Mercury charged in again, but both were blocked by the right pincer while the left, now usable again, smashed them into the ground with a sound of breaking stone. Mercury screamed as his Aura ran completely out and he felt his ribs crack by the force of the hit. When the monster retracted its claw, the boy did not stand up again, instead rolling on a side and choking out blood.

Ignoring Neo's attack at its legs, the woman not strong enough to actually do much damage, the Deathstalker returned to face the two Silver-Eyed women, its most basic instincts warring with Ampere's orders of not killing them. Finally, it seemed to find a compromise after half a second of hesitation, and brought a claw up to destroy what remained of their Aura.

Knowing her Aura was too low to escape with her Semblance, Ruby did the only thing she could. She embraced her mother and tried to put herself between her and the oncoming blow. A blow that, however, never came. Daring to open her eyes after a second, she was met with the sight of Jaune, now in hybrid form, straining to hold the pincer back. Unbeknownst to her, he was managing only because the Deathstalker had not put all its strength in the hit, aiming at knocking them out rather than crushing them.

/-/

Jaune felt a drop of sweat roll down his forehead and cheek as he held the pincer in place, painfully aware of just how exposed he was to any other attack from the monster.

He glared at the monster, and the Deathstalker faded from his sight. In its place there was a tall man who had once been a very handsome warrior, now only a husk of his former self. The man's black hair was wild and tangled, and his green eyes were misted and foggy, hazy from far too many bottles of alcohol. Jaune growled as his vision began to redden at the corners.

He glanced behind him, and he didn't see Ruby and Summer, looking at him in fear and apprehension. He saw two blonde girls with blue eyes, scared and huddled together, their eyes begging him not to get hurt for them again. His fury grew and everything turned of a shade of red. He was not going to get hurt, for their sake. He was going to hurt the man, he was going to stop him from ever laying a finger on them.

He glared back at the man. "I have kill you. I have killed you already. Do you hear me? YOU ARE ALREADY DEAD!" he screamed, his voice more monster than human. His vision swam and everything went red, Jaune lost any control he might've once had over his body as primal fury took over, and with it, a rampaging ferocity.

Black smoke poured from his body as he grew in height, quickly reaching nine feet in height, as tall as the Deathstalker's carapace was. Long, jagged white bone spikes grew all over his body, tearing his clothes into shreds. His teeth turned into sharp fangs and his claws grew out into sword-like blades. A light plating of bone armour covered his front as his skin turned blacker than coal, and the transformation finally finished as pure terror emanated from the monster.

The Hellkite roared at the Deahstalker, its mouth opening more than any human's could've, tearing its cheeks open to reveal rows of deadly fangs ready to rip and tear. The Deathstalker replied with a screech of its own, but the Hellkite did not seem to even hear it, slashing at the pincer it still held with its claws and deeply indenting the armour, making the Grimm scorpion screech again, this time in pain.

A new opponent had entered the fray.

 ** _Yeah, Hellkite is good to use. ^^_**

 ** _Also, sorry, in the last chapter I called Summer's weapon a wazikashi. Sorry, the correct spelling is wakizashi._**

 ** _Anyway, OP and UP stories. They are opposites yet so identical. What is the problem? Coherency._**

 ** _OP stories (any MC, again, not just Jaune). The MC is absurdly powerful and absurdly, the whole world revolves around them. But I'm sure we all know why OP stories lack coherency._**

 ** _UP stories, aka the majority of the humour stories on the RWBY section of this site, or at least the majority in the Jaune section of the RWBY section, though I've also read some Ruby-centric stories (like my Demonic Redemption, heh)._**

 ** _What is the problem with them? Simple: they are absurdly weak. Not just in combat, Oum forbids, in general. In videogame terms, it's as if their total scores are 1/10 of anyone else's. Usually, even when they can do something right, there are other people who can do better or at least just as good. (everyone thinks Jaune is good at dancing, but we saw Pyrrha, Ren and Nora dancing EXACTLY like him, and no one ever says anything. They are in a school for warriors, for Dust's sake, not for dancers! Why can they dance like that?! I wouldn't even know where to start!)_**

 ** _Furthermore, plot devices. Everything has to go bad for the MC, and most of the things they do right, at least at the start, are just for chance or luck. This results in semi-constant bashing of the character, as it seems like the only way they can do something right is by the will of the universe instead of by their own skills. And of course, Murphy's law, if something can go wrong, it will go wrong in the worst way possible._**

 ** _But why all these things make these stories unenjoyable to me?_**

 ** _Because both make the MC stand out needlessly. In this story, Jaune is unique, but at fighting he's far from the best, and everyone else has their own unique points as well. What I'm trying to say, both OP and UP stories separate the MCs from the rest of the cast, making it impossible for readers to impersonate. It's impossible to see them as people._**

 ** _I am not insulting all those authors who write those stories, mind me, I am just stating my opinion and backing it up with facts._**

 ** _A good story does not need to be 'let's give everything to the MC' nor 'let's take everything from the MC'. As much as it hurts me to mention Coeur's stories, his are a clear example of this, or at least some of his. I can understand they are all tagged Humour aside from The Unseen Hunt, but in most of these Jaune has no real reason to be that ridiculous._**

 ** _Canon is also another example of this._**

 ** _Why does this ruin the story FOR ME? (mind the specification, other people enjoy them nonetheless)_**

 ** _Because I don't see characters any more. I see names with no depth. No one is stupidly powerful in a world where people normally aren't, and no one is stupidly weak in a world where 15-y-old girls with 2 years of training from an uncle, who was supposedly always away on missions, can easily kill powerful Grimm. Also, Jaune was the only person in all of canon to not have an Aura, and probably the only person in the entire world to not know what Aura was. Again, that makes him not a person, but a name with not depth. There is no explanation for this, and even if RT does give one that makes sense, they have made the mistake of delaying for too long. Even if in V7 we found out about Jaune's past, it would still be many seasons late. Maybe in V4, where Ruby finds him training, they could've added a scene with Ruby talking with him, and him telling her about his past, so to make an actually useful scene instead of, I don't know, the useless part with them walking in the forest._**

 ** _My point is: OP and UP characters alike stop being people, and become names. But characters as we try to depict them are people, not just names. I'm not talking about Jaune-centric fics only, I'm talking about any RWBY fic. Actually, any kind of STORY. OP and UP just destroy the character._**

 ** _You want the MC not to be able to fight even the smallest of Grimm in a world where Oscar, a simple farmer boy of 13-4 years, fought a few Grimm before? Fine, but you need to come up with a solid explanation, and "Mommy and Daddy didn't want me to" is not a solid explanation._**

 ** _Sorry for the rant, hope you all enjoyed the chapter. Also, yeah, the Deathstalker is pretty harsh. Here is its combat sheet, very D &D-style:_**

Mutated Deathstalker

Str: 70  
Dex: 4  
End: 56  
Sta: 37  
Int: 4

Grimm Anti-Hunter lvl 55  
HP: 2035  
Init: -3  
Spd: 30 ft  
AC: 28 (-3 Dex, -2 size, +23 natural armour)  
Att: Pincers +85/+85 melee, stinger +85 melee  
Dam: Pincer 2d10+30, stinger 2d8+30 and poison  
Special: Bone Bullets, Improved Grapple, Biting, Poison Stream, Damage Reduction 50, Regeneration 15  
Endurance: +50  
Reflexes: +24

Bone bullets: from beside the mouth a Mutated Deathstalker can shoot 4 bone spikes every round. Every bone spike hits with a +52 hit roll bonus, and deals 1d6+4 damages and poison.

Poison: the stinger of a Mutated Deathstalker injects a terrible poison. Upon being struck by the stinger, a target must roll against a Fortitude DC 22 or be paralysed for 1d4+2 rounds. Every round afterwards, until the paralysis ends, the target must roll against a Fortitude DC 20 or suffer 2d4 damages to Con.

Improved Grapple. Upon hitting with a pincer attack, a Mutated Deathstalker can immediately attempt to grapple as a free action. Its total modifier is +93. If it is successful, it deals pincer damage every turn afterwards as automatic hit.

Biting: a Deathstalker can bite a grappled target with a total bonus of +85. If it is successful, it deals 2d8+30 damages and 3d6 acid damages.

Damage Reduction: all physical damage is reduced by 50. If this would make the damage fall below 0, it instead reduces it to 0. Non-physical damage like fire bypass this defence.

Regeneration: a Mutated Deathstalker regenerates 15 HP every 6 seconds.

Poison Stream: at will, a Deathstalker can fire a stream of acid poison from its stinger. It cannot attack with the stinger while it's firing. The acid has a +54 hit roll and deals 5d6+10 acid damage on impact.

 ** _So yeah, the Mutated Deathstalker is a real bitch. Especially since, if you remember, the highest-level in their group is Mercury... at level 24. And this bitch is at level 55._**

 ** _Oh well, Mutated Deathstalker vs Carnifex, Grimm Hellkite._**

 ** _Place your bets, guys._**

 ** _Until next time,_**

 ** _Khor Evik Vlakhavlakh_**


	18. Pavor, the Hideous Fear

**_Whew, this was long but interesting to write. Why, you may ask? Well, my answer is read on and you'll see. As you MIGHT have guessed I'm not stupid enough to keep the cliffhanger up for another chapter lest I want people to hack my account, find where I live and come to kill me._**

When Raven entered the tent with a smug smirk, Yang felt like screaming.

For the past two or three hours, she and Weiss had been forced to stay in that damn tent without being allowed to go anywhere. That bitch, Vernal, just kept telling them to stay put and wait. The tent itself wasn't too bad, spacious, with two beds and a large table with two chairs for them to sit at, but Yang was _not_ a patient person, and even Weiss did not like waiting without being told anything at all. They had even tried playing cards like in the movies, but with how nervous they were, it hadn't worked out well. The cards had kept getting incinerated by Yang or ripped to shreds by Weiss every time one of them lost.

So, when the infuriating woman who had once called herself Yang's mother entered the tent, Yang's first instinct was _not_ to hug her.

"What the fuck do you want?!" she yelled angrily, eyes red and flames flickering in her hair.

"You'd think my own blood would be smarter than this," scoffed Raven, then dodging a shotgun bullet flying by her head. "You are my subordinate, act like it. Or don't, if you don't want to know what I know about your dear sister…"

Yang's eyes turned lilac immediately. "Why didn't you say that before?!" she shouted, rushing up to the woman, only to be pushed back. "What?!"

"I am here to discuss with you, not receive hugs nor to see you act like a particularly brutish child," Raven stated frostily as Weiss too stood up from her chair and glared at her. "Sit, both of you. The information I have is nowhere near to what I had hoped, but it will have to suffice for now."

"You have information? What do you know?" Yang made to grab the older woman, but she was pushed back and stumbled.

"Sit down, I said. I haven't done all this out of goodness in my heart. I expect to be rewarded for this information." Raven clapped her hands, and Vernal stepped in the room, holding a tray with a tea kettle and three cups. "I may know where your sister is, but mine is just a hunch. Either case, you two won't just get this info for free, of course. I except something in return."

"What could we possibly give you?" asked Weiss, folding her arms over her chest. "We have no money."

"I never said anything about money," Raven noted placidly, nodding at Vernal as the girl poured the tea. "There is a small village not far from here, called Shion. I was debating whether to attack it or not, since Vernal and I are the only Huntresses in the tribe, but now that you two have joined us, I expect the attack to be nothing short of a perfect success."

"You want us to attack innocent civilians?!" Weiss burst out in anger.

"You knew what you were signing up for when you accepted my deal," the woman remarked coldly, making the two girls flinch. "This is not a place for the weak. If you really want to save little Ruby, then you'll have to choose between her life, or someone else's. You don't even know these farmers. Besides…" Raven smiled and leaned closer. "Who is even going to know it was you? Bandits, they would say. Not Yang Xiao Long and Weiss Schnee. _Bandits_. You help me, and I help you. Or, if you prefer, I can bring you back to Beacon, where you'll be imprisoned and put in jail for a few years. Which one do you prefer?"

Yang and Weiss exchanged a glance. "We can't go back," stated the latter, shaking her long ponytail. "Not until this mess has been solved, and our names cleared."

"But those are innocent people!" protested the blonde, shocked by her teammate and leader's nonchalance.

"I know, Yang, and believe me when I say this is sick, but Raven will just choose another village to pillage if we do not accept. People are going to die no matter what. If we accept, though, we also get information on where your sister might be, and if we find her, maybe we will be forgiven part or all of our actions," explained Weiss, glaring hard at Raven, who calmly sipped her tea. "She's gonna kill innocents no matter what. Am I right, _Branwen?_ "

"You are," shrugged the woman.

"I do not like the thought of killing people, but honestly, I think killing them would be more merciful than leaving them to her mercy or the Grimm's." Weiss shook her head. "I agree. If we her hunch leads us to your sister, maybe Ozpin will forgive us for our actions, and maybe help us clear our names. I see no other option, unless you wish to try to flee and then run around like a headless chicken, trying to find a sister whose location you don't even know."

Yang clenched her fists. "I-"

"She accepts too," Weiss cut her off, glaring at her, and Raven allowed herself a small smirk. "She still has to wraps her head about it, but we need to accept. She'll agree with me… eventually. At the moment, she is not thinking rationally. Her mind is still garbled by the knowledge she'll have to harm people." Weiss's eyes narrowed. "Besides, from what I've heard, she never had a problem harming people before."

Yang's eyes, once red, widened in shock and then lowered in shame. The girl slumped and looked to the side, closing a hand over her forearm in an unusual display of lack of confidence and depression. "You're right… I'm already almost a murderer… I could've killed those girls…"

"Wallowing in past regrets will get you nowhere," stated Raven, lowering her tea and standing up. "You have to choose which side you will take. To decide how much you care for your sister, and if you're ready to do anything to save her."

Raven smirked as she exited the tent, but she couldn't resist one parting jab. "But do hurry, from what my informant told me, your sister might not be in a very _pleasing_ situation, at the moment," she grinned smugly at Yang's shocked expression. "It is still just a chance, though… now, dear, take all the time you need to think about your answer."

/-/

Ruby knew she should've felt terror coursing through her vein, and she did. Kinda.

She had already witnessed once to Jaune turning into… whatever that monster was. The process wasn't any less terrifying the second time around, she knew that too. Watching as white skin became black and as spikes jutted out from where no spikes should ever be, it was jarring and horrifying. Watching Jaune's head elongating, becoming more wolf-like, his mouth filling with fangs and his teeth torn open to reveal his jaws… that too had been horrifying, especially because this time around, the monster looked even less human than the first. Its legs were curve backwards like a wolf's, and its neck was a bit longer, allowing for a better bite. This was, effectively, a better version of the monster she had already seen. It was… yes, in a way it was also more elegant. Its body was sleeker, despite being muscled, armoured and spiked. And its spikes were no longer rough, but polished and sharpened.

Ruby knew she should've been scared, and she kinda was, but… there was something more to it.

She could feel that her mother was thinking the same thing. They were both shaking as the monster before them roared at the mutated Deathstalker, but Ruby had noticed one thing. After Jaune had stopped the pincer, after he had turned in his hybrid form as he called it, he had behaved weirdly for a second before turning into Grimm.

First he had tensed up. Ruby knew it was normal to be tense before a giant Grimm like that Deathstalker, but Jaune had tensed up in a different way, and Ruby could've almost _smelled_ the sheer hatred flowing off the boy at the moment. Then he had turned to face them, but Ruby had seen his blue eyes look straight past her and her mother. He had been looking at something, or far more likely someone else.

Yes, blue eyes.

Ruby hadn't missed that. Most people thought that eye colour was a small detail, as not many looked at the eyes first, but Ruby was different. She had learned how to read eyes, and she had learned to consider them important. And Jaune had blue eyes that moment, even in his Grimm form. And what she read in those eyes… hadn't she been so scared, she would've blushed. There was so much love in his eyes… no, not just that. Love, but also fondness, an undying loyalty, and tenderness, all emotions she wasn't used to seeing in many people, much less in such amounts. She had been all but _overwhelmed_ by the love he hid in his eyes, and it kinda hurt to know all that love was for someone else, and that for her there would only be his usual pragmatism and sarcasm.

But… she kind of knew who the true targets of his love were.

And if her guess was correct, she also knew who Jaune saw when he looked at that Deathstalker. It would explain why he had shouted to have killed it already, though it brought her to think about Jaune killing his own father, and it wasn't a pleasant thought. Not just because she would never kill her father, but also because Jaune seemed more willing to use his claws rather than his sword, so… the murder must not have been a very clean one.

The fact that the sheer thought of his father had forced Jaune into transforming again was worrying. How often would it happen, then? Or was it because she and Summer had been about to be hit? Why had he seen his sisters, the people he loved more than the entire world, when he had been protecting them? Did that mean he cared about them?

Ruby had no answer for all those questions.

Instead, she just watched.

/-/

The Deathstalker screeched in pain as the Hellkite dented its armour with a single attack, and tried to fight back with the other pincer, aiming to grab the humanoid Grimm's arm with it and crush it, but once again not knowing its foe's true potential worked against it as the Hellkite stopped the pincer with one claw, demonstrating a superior strength even to that of the Deathstalker.

Instead of pushing it away, though, the Hellkite pulled it close and up, exposing the unarmoured underside, and its wicked teeth sank into the black flesh, its jaws tearing chunks off it and swallowing quickly, like a starved animal.

Again the giant scorpion screeched, and this time the pain was great. The Hellkite was not a clean opponent nor a weak one, and even firing the spike bullets from its mouth did nothing but irritate the large humanoid. Not strong enough to pull its pincer out of its foe's grasp, the Deathstalker fired a spray of acid from its stinger, hitting its arm and screeching in triumph when the Hellkite released the pincer, screaming in pain and holding a semi-melted arm that now showed corroded black flesh.

"Jaune!"

The two monsters ignored the scream, and the Deathstalker continued its assault by attacking with both pincers, although its left one was still very weak due to the bite wound. The Hellkite swatted its left one aside with its good arm, and allowed the right pincer to strike its back. A back full of spikes sharper than a razor that, despite the pincer being mostly covered by red armour, still managed to sink in the unprotected flesh. The scorpion-based Grimm screeched, once again in pain, as its own strength drove the spikes deeper into its limb.

In a last resort to put some space between itself and the spiked monstrosity, the Deathstalker plunged its stinger in the creature's arm, the corroded one. The injury from the acid had stopped smoking, but regeneration would take longer than just a few seconds. Pumping as much venom as it could into the wound, the scorpion abomination crawled back, healing its wounds and putting some much-needed space between the closer-range fighter.

The Hellkite, however, was far tougher than any human. Even Jaune had no hopes of matching it in sheer strength or endurance. The venom was powerful, ridiculously so, and burned in its veins, but the monster ignored it as it flung itself at the Deathstalker once again and, under everyone's shocked eyes, sank its fangs deep in the armoured shell of the bigger Grimm, tearing bone and flesh in great chunks like it had done for the pincer.

The scorpion was not an easy prey, but very close range, specifically within its pincers' range and thus too close to hit, it couldn't do much. Its mouth was powerful, but also flat against its body, not allowing it to really attempt a real bite, and even the spike bone bullets its shot from its mouth harmlessly bounced off the Hellkite's armour, or just barely sank into its flesh, pushed back out after a second by its regeneration.

Edward Ampere, from his corner of the room, couldn't help but marvel at the battle between the two titans. "This… this is most wonderful," he whispered to himself, eyes glued to the sleek yet hulking form of the Hellkite. "The experiment wasn't a failure, after all… no, it was our greatest success.."

It was clear to everyone that, despite being the larger Grimm, the Deathstalker was slowly losing its battle. Unable to tear the Hellkite off due to its vicinity, and unwilling to hurt itself by plunging down the stinger, the monster could only trash around and screech as the humanoid abomination continued to rip and devour its way to the scorpion's brain. The sound of tearing flesh filled the air, and both silver-eyed women pressed themselves against the wall in fear, being the closest to the battling monsters. Roman, Neo, Mercury and Adam were all by the door, ready to turn their backs and leave. Mercury was still bleeding a lot, and spitting blood from time to time, but Neo seemed to have bandaged most of their wounds. Adam's corroded arm was in a rudimentary cast, and Roman was heavily leaning on the woman, but they were all still alive.

Maybe not for long.

With one final screech, the Deathstalker eventually slowed its movements and fell to the ground, defeated and dying. Under everyone's shocked eyes, its body began to disintegrate, and the Hellkite threw its head back to roar in victory.

Then it turned to face the two silver-eyed women, its eyes full of hunger and malice, before ignoring them and looking at the four injured by the door, who visibly paled as the monster took a step toward them. Neo allowed Roman to lean against the wall and drew her rapier, while Adam drew Blush, his rifle, choosing not to try his luck at melee. Mercury was too injured to fight, and Roman had run out of Fire Dust.

Fortunately for them, a third party was not wise enough to keep quiet.

"Marvellous!" Ampere exclaimed, having ditched his glass of wine for a notepad and a pen. "This is incredible! Such strength and savageness, it was beyond my wildest dreams!"

The Hellkite growled and turned its wolf-like head to face the scientist, slowly turning its body as well. Ruby wanted to cry out, to at least warn Ampere of the impeding danger, but she found out she couldn't. The hatred for the man her mother felt was so strong she could feel it without being a Grimm, so strong it was incredible the monster hadn't turned on them. And it was a justified hatred, born from years of torture and experiments on the woman.

Ruby clenched her hands. For the first time in her life, she wanted someone dead. Not just dead, she wanted them to suffer. Ampere had brought so much evil, but all she could think of was how weak, starved and defeated her mother looked when they had found her, and it was all because of Ampere and Watts. That man had hurt her mother for years, had made her family believe she was dead, and had hurt Ruby herself more than any Grimm could ever hope of doing.

For the first time in her life, Ruby wanted someone to die. She bit down on her cry, stifling it.

Heedless of the danger, or probably thinking that he could still control the Hellkite due to its Grimm nature, Ampere continued to scribble down on his notepad. "This new Grimm… I'll have to think of a name later… was able to overpower Project MD, and seemed to be able to bear great amounts of pain without allowing them to hinder it! The massive number of bone protrusions paired with the humanoid form is unusual, but I believe I-"

He was cut off as the Hellkite swept him up with a clawed hand, and bit down onto the upper half of his body with a resounding _crunch_ on broken bones before he could even scream. Ruby bit her lip to avoid making a sound at the sight of the blood spilling and dropping onto the floor, quickly creating a small puddle, but she was the only one really disturbed by the sight. Neo and Torchwick had quickly crossed the room, leaving Adam and Mercury at the door, to pick them up, and they were wordlessly gesturing them to use Ampere's death as distraction to flee.

Ruby allowed herself to be pulled along by the even shorter girl while the criminal mastermind aided her mother, but she didn't take her eyes off the Grimm. Deep down, somewhere in the recesses of that hatred-driven mind, Jaune was still there, and still alive. She couldn't just abandon him. Especially because there was no telling whether he'd naturally turn back to human once no one was nearby.

They had to do _something_ … something she didn't know how to use.

The Hellkite, undisturbed, quickly finished the meal and even licked the blood off its claws in a very human-like fashion, before roaring in triumph and turning to face them.

And then… it changed.

Smoke billowed around it, and its spikes crumpled to dust like rocks eroded by thousands of years concentrated in the span of a second. Its head returned more human-like, and Ruby began to smile, as it seemed Jaune was finally back.

But the transformation did not end there. A skull-like mask of bone formed on its face, and its arms became skeletal black limbs hanging loosely at its sides. Its whole lower half disappeared into smoke, as if fading away, and a series of white bone ribs appeared on the skeletal black chest. A bone-white tattered cloak hung to its frame, swaying slightly with the monster's floating movements. A low, piercing wail exited its mouth, and then its eyes opened.

They only saw they were still red, before darkness took over.

/-/

 _Roman Torchwick opened his eyes and looked around. His dorm room. He was back in his dorm room at Beacon. He wanted to laugh. He was back in his room, safe and sound, as if nothing had ever happened. He stood up and walked to the door. Since he was back, he might as well check how his teammates were doing._

 _The door didn't budge._

 _He frowned. Why was the door locked? Especially, why was the door locked from the other side? He would never lock himself on the wrong side of a door… not like it was even possible to lock a door from the wrong side. Someone had locked that door for him, but who exactly? Even his teammates wouldn't be as stupid as to think that locking their leader in a room would be a bright idea._

 _ **"Why, hello there, Roman,"**_ _a_ _female voice spoke up from behind him, and he froze. He knew that voice…_ _ **"Are you ignoring me, Roman? A leader ignoring his own teammate? How incredibly unkind of you…"**_

 _Torchwick took a deep breath and steadfastly continued to look at the door. "Just go away," he mumbled lowly, but he knew he would be heard._

 _ **"Sending me away? Wasn't once enough already?"**_ _Roman stiffened as the voice chuckled coldly._ _ **"Just how low has the great leader of Team TASK fallen? Or should I say… Team TANK?"**_

 _"Shut up," grunted the orange-haired man, clenching his fists. "And go away."_

 _ **"What? No 'it wasn't my fault' or 'it was necessary' today? Are we finally seeing reason?"**_ _the voice grew sharper._ _ **"Your cane didn't strike me. The rest of it, is your fault."**_

 _"The mission was harder than we had been told, and no reinforces ever arrived! They hadn't even been told about us!" Roman burst out, finally turning to face the owner of the voice. A short woman stood in the middle of the room, looking at him with eyes burning with hatred, one pink and one brown. Her outfit too followed the same theme, while her hair was a mix of cream and pink. A parasol was hooked on her arm, closed. "I didn't think you would end up in ICU when I made that decision! I thought I would have time to come back quickly!"_

 _ **"ICU? Roman, I never went to ICU. You abandoned me in Mountain Glenn,"**_ _retorted the woman._

 _Torchwick opened his mouth to reply, but then her words hit him. "I… what? No! We brought you back! The doctors said you would lose your voice, but that you'd eventually recover!"_

 _ **"No, Roman, you never came back for me… you left me in the tunnels to die as you fled,"**_ _spat the woman, glaring at him._ _ **"I see you have a new teammate now, the Silver girl, whatever her name was. Did you leave me just so you could take her?"**_

 _"No! Please, believe me!" Roman lunged to grab the woman's arm, but she shattered like glass as soon as he touched her. "No! Neo, please, it wasn't my fault!"_

/-/

 _The Grimm were everywhere._

 _Neopolitan slashed open an Ursa's throat with her parasol's blade and stabbed a Beowolf through its head with her rapier, before backflipping to dodge a Deathstalker's stinger. Sweat covered her body and ran down her skin in beads, adding dehydration to the long list of things that were going bad that day._

 _The mission had been stupidly labelled 'hard', but it had turned out to be impossible. The horde of Grimm never ended, and for everyone they killed, a hundred more would pour out of the tunnels. Of the five teams sent, theirs was the last one remaining standing. The sixteen fallen had been devoured or trampled over by the overwhelming waves of monsters, and memories were the only things their family would have left of them. Empty graves to be filled with tears._

 _Her own team was not without wounds. Team STRQ, the best third year students, had been sent to help them hours before. Why hadn't they arrived yet? Keaa was limping badly, as that heavily impacted his battles as his fighting style relied on agility. John was still mostly fine due to his ridiculous amounts of Aura, but even he was low on juices. Roman had long since ran out of Dust for his cane, and was now left to fend Grimm off beside her in the tunnels under Mountain Glenn._

 _Why was Team STRQ not coming?_

 _Had something happened?_

 _They were being overwhelmed. She knew it, and her team knew it too. She knew what they had to do. "Roman!" she called to her leader. "Take John and Keaa and go! I'll hold them off!"_

 _"There are too many to 'hold them off', Neo!" Roman shouted back. "_ _ **We**_ _will hold them off until STRQ arrives!"_

 _"STRQ might be strong even for a fourth year, but they are still just four people! We had four other teams with us and now we're alone!" Neo yelled over the noise of battle, killing three more Beowolves with the same swing of her rapier and drop-kicking a Boarbatusks that thankfully hadn't had the space to charge. "I'm the best off right now! Take the others and leave, you'll come back with the support team!"_

 _"Neo-"_

 _"You are team leader first and foremost, Roman, so get your shit together and act like it!" she all but screamed at him, making him flinch and almost being hit by an Ursa. "Forget about our friendship for a second, and save the team instead of getting_ _ **all**_ _of us killed because you refused to leave someone behind!"_

 _Torchwick was struggling, she knew that. Seeing her partner, Keaa Konis, nearby, she decided to give them the push they needed. "Keaa, I'm holding them off! You, Roman and John run! You'll come back for me later!"_

 _And with that, she threw herself in the horde, disappearing from view, heedless to her leader's shouting. They were a team, and she would not allow everyone to die just because her leader was being too fearful to leave her behind for a while._

 _Neo kept telling herself it would only be for a while._

 _Only for a while._

/-/

 _"Aaaarrrrggghhh!"_

 _"Shut up, animal!" A sharp kick robbed Adam Taurus of all the air in his lungs, and he forced himself to look up at his tormentor. An Atlasian guard in military uniform stood over him, sneering down at him like he was a vermin. "You've been causing trouble in the mines. The boss wants to have a talk with you."_

 _The gag they had put in his mouth told a different story. The boss was not going to talk, but to punish Adam for what he had done._

 _A tall man with grey hair -almost white- and piercing blue eyes strode in the room, glaring at him with icy eyes. Contempt, disdain, and spite was all he could see in that man, and he knew fully well why. He was Jacques Schnee, the CEO of the Schnee Dust Company. Why would he ever feel anything but those emotions when in the presence of a lowly Faunus miner like him? Not just that, a lowly Faunus miner who had dared to break his chains and try to lead a revolt to free his comrades._

 _Jacques Schnee nodded to a man, who checked something in a large fireplace. Adam began to tremble. He knew his actions wouldn't be taken lightly, but branding was not something he was prepared to endure._

 _"Now, scum, do you know how many Lien your actions will cost me? Hundreds. And while I usually would consider this negligible, compared to how much your life is worth, it is a huge sum. Which is why I want you to learn_ _ **what**_ _you are." He nodded to the man by the fire again, and the soldier took a red-hot rod from the flames. "You are property of the Schnee Dust Company. Now, and forever."_

 _Adam screamed into his gag as the metal melted and bit into his flesh, searing his eye and forever marking him as a slave._

/-/

 _Summer Rose woke up slowly, her energies so low it was difficult even just to open her eyes. The light was minimal at best, and it took her a few seconds to understand where she was, starvation and weakness slowing down her mind._

 _When she did take in her surroundings, she gave a choked cry of shock and tried to push herself up, but she lacked the strength to do so. She felt weak, she felt so weak. Pathetically struggling on the floor, she frantically looked around, but the cold, empty cell was without escape, just as it had always been._

 _"It seems our little rose is awake at last," a terrifyingly familiar voice laughed from behind the bars. A man came into view, with green eyes and brown hair, smirking down at her as she stared at him in abject fear. "Oh, don't be so scared, it's just little old me…"_

 _She tried to form words, to scream, or at least to insult him, but nothing came out of her throat if not a garbled sob._

 _"Oh, my little Summer, why are you afraid?" The man opened the door and walked in, ignoring her futile attempts at crawling away. "I just want to play some more games…"_

/-/

 _Ruby Rose was running through a forest, following the white flashes of cloth ahead of her. "Mom, slow down, I can't keep up!" she called out, jumping over a fallen tree trunk and continuing on the path, trying to catch another glimpse of the white-cloaked Huntress._

 _Silence was all that met her words._

 _She reached a clearing by the cliffside and stopped. There, standing before a rock all too similar to a gravestone, there was the woman she had been chasing. "Mom?" she murmured quietly. "Did we… did we do it? Did we manage to save you?"_

 _Then the figure turned, and Ruby opened her mouth in a wordless scream. The skin of her face was torn, the flesh ripped from the bone and bloody, and the eyes were crushed in their sockets. Hair matted with blood stuck to the face of the corpse, and the clothes were shreds of their original outfit, revealing decaying and rotten flesh. The cadaver's mouth opened,_ _ **"Foolish girl, your father told you I was dead. They showed you my corpse, but you didn't want to see it. You imagined it. You deluded yourself into thinking I was still alive… Can't you see?"**_ _The corpse began to fall apart, worms and critters eating her flesh._ _ **"I've been dead ALL ALONG!"**_

 _Ruby finally screamed._

And she screamed even as everything turned silver, and then black.

 ** _Can you figure out which character's nightmare was not shown? Let's see... we have Roman, Neo, Adam, Summer, Ruby... uhm... silver-haired, grey-eyed, grey-themed... wait a second where's Mercury's nightmare?_**

 ** _Why my choice to keep it out of the story? Well, it's obvious it would be going back to being under his father's thumb, and it didn't really add to his character. We see Torchwick with Neo's injury (she was removed from the team since she ended up in ICU for quite a while, and replaced), and how he blames himself. We see Neo's fear of Roman leaving her permanently and why she's so attached to him. We see what happened to Adam and why he hates humans so much, since V6 didn't really explain it before Adam was killed. We see how Summer's worst fear isn't Ruby dying, but her returning to the lab, meaning that she's very changed by her permanency there. And Ruby's fear of all that being not real, of her just being deluding herself._**

 ** _Now, why did Ruby react with SE while Summer didn't? Because as Maria explains in V6, SE are activated by thinking of people you love. Summer was thinking of herself, while Ruby was thinking of Summer, thus only hers activated. And Jaune's lucky they didn't activate them both..._**

 ** _Now, Pavor, Jaune's second 'Demon' or 'Grimm form', is here! Not much of a fighter, but as you can see as opposite to Carnifex, Pavor does have something special. The wail was powerless though, not like The Apathy's or the Nuckelavee's._**

 ** _And yes, Carnifex is physically stronger than a Deathstalker. Yippie! ^^_**

 ** _Lastly, Raven. "They would refuse," you'd say. "They are not murderers," you'll say. Well yes they are. Just take the Breach, they threw people off a train and to a giant horde of Grimm. Like Mercury says many WF didn't make it out of that tunnel. Plus scythes, rapiers, katanas, and shotgun gauntlets are NOT in the list of non-lethal weapons, and are you telling me every single WF grunt has Aura unlocked when Jaune, who apparently knew enough about Hunters to get fake transcripts for Beacon Academy and actually arrived to Beacon, has no idea even what Aura is. So I don't think all WF grunts have Aura. So, RWBY killed a bunch of them without batting an eyelid. So, they can kill. Plus, as Weiss said, Raven would just attack another village. They are just changing the victims._**

 ** _Until next time,_**

 ** _Khor Evik Vlakhavlakh_**


	19. Like a Soul Out of Hell

Ruby awoke feeling groggy for the second time in a week. Her head spun, and she wouldn't be surprised if those cracking noises she was hearing were coming from her own skull. She didn't remember falling nor taking a hit, though. Her head was on a warm surface, too solid to be a pillow and too soft to be the floor. She felt a dull ache in the back of her head, and a sharp sting of pain in her side. There were people speaking.

"…-ake when that thing… -acking the stone, we'd bet-… going."

"Kicking he-… can understand you but… -y daughter!"

"Stop bick-… let me help you dra-… -etter be grateful when she wakes up…"

In the background, the cracking noise continued undisturbed. Ruby blinked to clear her swimming vision, and her mother's equally silver eyes were the first thing she noticed followed by her pale complexion and red hair. A man with crimson hair and a horrible scar across his face was scowling down at her, and in his eyes Ruby could not see the barest spark of real worry for her. Another man, this time with grey hair and eyes, was helping her mother push her into sitting position.

Her head spun again as she sat upright, but it soon faded and she took in her surroundings.

There was another man, with orange hair and a white suit, who was frantically clutching his hat, placing it on his head and removing it in an endless loop. A short girl with dual colour theme was standing near him, but other than a distraught expression, she seemed fine. And finally there was what was apparently the source of the cracking sounds, the statue of some sort of ghost-like Grimm hovering in mid-air, its 'legs' disappearing in petrified smoke. The cracks ran all across its chest and were expanding to its arms and head now, but only black smoke seemed to exit.

Slowly, her memory came back to her. The fight with the Mutated Deathstalker, Jaune's transformation, Ampere's bloody execution, and a new transformation.

She tried to stand immediately, only for her killer headache to come back with a vengeance. Her mother was talking, but the words were hazy, as if spoken underwater. Ruby eventually didn't care, she shakily stood up and staggered over to the statue.

A firm grip closed on her arm, impossible to shake off. "Let's _go_. That thing might break out at any moment."

"No! I'm not gonna leave him here!" Ruby tried to wrestle free, impossible feat even on the best of days for her, now only resulting in her hair falling all over her face.

"Red kinda of has a point," said the grey-haired boy, Mercury. "It's breaking free anyway. She's the only one who can flashbang it back into stone. If we run and it breaks free, it might chase us down, and we're all nil on Aura. If we stay here, maybe it'll turn back to human like last time."

"Last time?" Taurus replied sharply. "This has happened before?!"

"Yes, he turned into that demon back when I first met him," nodded the boy. "But still, I suggest we leave Red as vanguard and we stay behind her. Just in case that thing wants a snack before going back to human. Isn't that why we waited for it to start cracking before waking her up?"

Another crack, louder and sharper, marked the first real fracture in the statue, and a clawed hand broke free, spasming and convulsing. Without thinking, Ruby shrugged off Adam's now still hand and took hold of the claw like one would grab a hand. After a second of shock, the hand wrapped around her own, enclosing both her hands in its claws. More cracks ran up the arm, showing night black skin and sleek muscles.

The fractures soon reached the rest of the stone, exponentially speeding up and soon crumbling to dust, freeing the ghastly Grimm phantasm. Ruby swallowed hard and kept her eyes low, unwilling to cross its gaze once more. Slowly, the hand she was holding shrank and its razor-like claws disappeared. The skin paled quickly, going from pitch black to almost white, and when Ruby raised her eyes, she found herself looking into blue instead of red.

"Let me guess, I went wild again?" Jaune asked in a deadpan.

"Is this a common recurrence?" Adam snapped angrily, pointing his katana at him.

The boy swiped the weapon aside with the back of his hand. "Don't try to act tough while you're barely managing to stay on your feet. But no, this is only the second time it happens, and I have to get _really_ pissed off, it seems. Or at least, I think so."

The sword got back up. "I don't trust you."

"Nor do I you and frankly, you do well not trusting me. But we don't really have time. Even if this lab is soundproof and we don't have to worry about nosy citizens, I don't want to spend a second more than necessary in this place." The blade wavered for a second before Taurus's arm fell back down at his side, too exhausted to fight any more. "Just to let you know the basics, I am technically speaking a human/Grimm hybrid. Human soul in Grimm-based body. I was subjected to an experiment by the same scientist that captured you, and they injected me with Grimm essence or something like that. I'll explain more later. Now, shall we go?"

"Y-Yeah, let's go," Torchwick gulped audibly, checking his hat one more time before straightening and dusting himself off. "I suggest we also find a pub because I seriously need a drink."

"Me too, Torchwick, and don't you dare start with that 'underage' bullshit, I've been drinking since I was twelve," Mercury grumbled, spitting a glob of blood and wiping his mouth. "Ugh, Aura's so slow sometimes. I don't think I'll be fighting anytime soon." He bumped his leg against Summer's shoulder, snapping her out of her trance. "What are you stari… oh, I see. Grimm Boy, you'd better get dressed. You're giving the girls a free show… and I'll be honest, it is quite the show. I guess the rumour about large Aura reserves is true."

Summer and Ruby alike squeaked and looked away, blushing deeply, while Neo continued to stare with a lecherous grin. Though Summer did peek from between her fingers.

Jaune's unhealthily pale cheeks darkened slightly, out of embarrassment or shame they didn't know, and he sighed. "Yeah, but I don't have any clothes."

Taurus removed his shirt and tossed it at him. "Wear my clothes. I've got my old stuff back so you can have these until you can buy new ones." Roman tossed him the backpack with his old clothes, and the Faunus got dressed again. As soon as he was finished, the sword was raised once again. "And hurry up, because naked or not I'm leaving this building in two minutes."

Jaune quickly pulled on the clothes, earning a sigh of disappointment from Neo. The plain grey shirt and pale grey trousers were a bit baggy on him due to the size difference between him and the previous owner, but it was nothing that couldn't be fixed by rolling up the sleeves and ignoring the rest.

"I'm ready," he stated simply.

"Wait!" Taurus gave a cry of frustration as everyone turned to Summer. The woman was barely standing on her feet, but she refused Ruby's help. "I want the full explanation. Whatever you are, you're dangerous. I want to know what I'm travelling with _before_ I bring you into a settlement."

"The full explanation is that I'm a Grimm, don't know the percentage as I was smart enough to avoid doctors, and I have a hybrid form – this." Jaune's skin turned white and his eyes red, startling Taurus and Summer. "And I can apparently become some kind of Grimm monster when I get pissed."

There was a long silence after that. Then Summer nodded weakly. "Are you in control?"

"All the time until I get _really_ pissed. Thus far, only harming my sisters can get me that pissed," shrugged Jaune. "And… for some reason against the Deathstalker, I saw my sisters behind me, and I got pissed at that Grimm."

"Great so now he's schizophrenic…" grumbled Mercury.

"And you have no Grimm instincts or anything?" the Huntress inquired further, but her eyes had already softened before he even spoke.

"No. I have Grimm senses and all but no instincts… no more than it's normal, at least."

Summer exhaled slowly, closing her eyes and opening them again after a second. "O-Okay," she said, her voice wavering lightly as her breathing became shaky. "You are the White Glow?"

"Yes he is," Taurus butted in.

"I guess so?" Jaune offered weakly.

Summer nodded and shakily walked up to Jaune, staring right into his blue eyes. Then she slumped against him and hugged him with all the force she had in her body. Taken aback, Jaune blinked in surprise before slowly bringing his arms around the woman. What shocked him even more was the woman's sobs. The Huntress he had met so long prior, strong and cheerful, was gone, replaced by an empty shell who had been imprisoned for basically a decade. His eyes softened and he brought her a little closer, their height difference making it so that her face was pressed against his lower shoulder.

"T-Thank you… Thank you _so much_ … Thank you… You… Y-You saved me…"

Ignoring Ruby's worried expression, Roman's somewhat sad gaze, and the other three's impatient frowns, Jaune sighed as he finally understood what was the matter. One of his hands settled on the small of her back, keeping her close, while the other came up to stroke her hair. He didn't pass his fingers through it as it was a tangled mess, but he caressed it like one would do with a cat's fur. He didn't try to reassure her everything was going to be okay, because there was no need. For her, the agony had ended.

"You saved me first," he replied, hiding his compassion for the woman under a light mirth. "Hadn't you unlocked my Aura, neither of us would be here today. No one of us would. In a way, you were the one to save us all by giving me my Aura. I didn't exactly get any other chance of unlocking it after that day."

She didn't laugh, she only cried harder, but he had been expecting that. He wasn't trying to comfort her nor to reassure her, as sometimes crying was simply the best solution. He was just trying to break the awkwardness he felt.

Another caped female joined the hug, squeezing herself between the two as if to get a hug from both. "Thank you for saving Mom," she murmured as she too hugged him.

To many people, being embraced so tightly by two beautiful women -no matter the age difference- would've been nice at the very least. Ruby's skin was soft and warm, and her grip was gentle but firm. Summer, on the other hand, felt desperate, a dead man's hold that would be difficult to break out even for someone inhumanly strong like he was.

To him, the hug just felt weird. They weren't family, they weren't even close – something that rang much truer for Summer than for Ruby. If it had been up to him, he would've never hugged a person on impulse just like that.

He throttled his hesitance and sighed. Maybe he wouldn't have done something like that, but he wasn't most people. He was no one but himself. His sisters didn't find it weird to hug him. Maybe Ruby and Summer were used to hugs as well. He looked down at the two sobbing messes and sighed to himself again. He was just overthinking things. Just because two non-sister people were hugging him, it didn't mean they were about to try and murder him.

"As heartwarming as that is, can we get going?" Mercury's voice made his eye twitch. "I'm sure we all have questions and answers we need to talk about, but let's start with the waterworks when we're out of here."

Jaune closed his eyes and resisted the temptation to steal Ruby's scythe and hurl it at the assassin, knowing he would just dodge it. "Yes, let's get out of here," he conceded, trying to detach the two Rose females from him, but to no avail. Summer's grip was iron-like, and Ruby was nestled between the two of them, so unless he wished to hurt one of them, he couldn't detach them. With a resigned shrug, he picked them both up, making them yelp and blush, one with each hand. He took only one step toward the door before stopping and scowling at Roman, who already had a grin ready alongside Mercury. "Don't say a word."

"A word."

Sometimes he hated his companions, and sometimes he just wanted to kill them.

/-/

"Are we sure about this?"

Yang Xiao Long glanced at Weiss for a second before looking away, choosing to continue putting on her temporary outfit instead of answering right away. The nondescript brown tent the two of them were changing in was small, but it wasn't small enough for Yang to be forced to meet Weiss's eyes. The blonde fixed her eyes on a large dark stain on the tent's cloth, but even that small distraction couldn't delay her answer forever.

With a sigh, she turned to look at Weiss fully. The white-haired girl had set aside her high-class dress for a more bandit-looking brown shirt and beige trousers tucked into brown boots. Her long hair, of a white so recognizable, was hidden under the dark hood of the jacket she wore over the shirt, and a pair of brown gloves completed the outfit.

Her own clothes weren't far better. Instead of her usual Huntress stuff she had been forced to wear a nondescript black shirt of Raven's, since she was the only one who matched her own breast size, under a brown jacket not dissimilar to her previous one. Dark brown pants and boots completed the outfit, as well as a pair of spiked knuckles to use as weapons. Raven had been _merciful_ enough to give her a pair of red leather gloves, so that the blood wouldn't hit her hands directly. The sneer on her face when she had given them to her had been as ugly as it had been infuriating.

"What do you mean?"

"We are about to become criminals, Yang, this is what I mean," Weiss snapped irritably. "We are about to attack a village, and even if _we_ don't kill anyone, we'll still be raiding a village. Are you sure this is worth it?"

Yang clenched her hands into fists and distracted herself by tying up her hair like Raven had instructed her to do. "Yes, I'm sure. I _need_ to find Ruby, and if this is the only way I'll get out of imprisonment and I can continue searching for her, then so be it. I already lost too much family as it is. But this does not mean I enjoy having to do this, Weiss." The blonde spared her a glance. "What about you, though? You don't have any sister in danger to drive you."

"I am not doing this because I enjoy it nor because I think it's what is right, if that's what you think," snorted the white-haired girl. "I have a reputation and a family name, Yang. I'll admit, back at Signal, and at that club, I should've stopped you, but my curiosity for why Winter kept all this away from me was too great. Now, though, there's more than unsatisfied curiosity on the line. Finding your sister might be the only way for me to come out of this, if not with a sparkling clean slate, at least without having to suffer from the fallout of those crimes. I cannot allow this to ruin me, or I will have to give up on becoming a Huntress. I have a family name to uphold, and finding your sister might be the only way for me to save this goal. So, I'm not going to rest until we find her… even if you are _not_ the companion I'd prefer."

"Jeez, I just feel-" Yang cut herself off as the tent's flap opened, and in stepped none other than Raven Branwen herself. "Raven."

"Are you ready? We take off in ten minutes," the bandit leader asked them, ignoring the tense atmosphere in the tent. She had her usual outfit on, but her mask was already in place, covering her face but hinting at her crimson eyes. She threw similar masks at them as well. "Good. Put these on, if you don't want to be recognized."

Yang growled as she snatched the mask from the woman without bothering with a thanks. Weiss took her own with a glare, but she held her temper.

"Debriefing, we are attacking Shion, a small town with a stupidly high number of guards. A couple of Hunters too, but those aren't a real problem. Problem is, I need you two to take care of the guards while Vernal and I kill the Hunters, so that my tribe doesn't get killed by the guards," Raven explained their role. "We don't know the precise number, but expect at least two dozens guards. They are going to be easy for you, given your training, but your role is to breach their lines to allow everyone else in. Mess this up, and a missing little brat is going to be the last thought on your mind. Am I clear?"

"Crystal," Weiss replied with distaste.

"Good. Put on those masks and let's move out. Despite what movies and books say, bandits prefer to attack during the day, when they can still _see_ , rather than during the night. I want this wrapped up before nightfall."

/-/

" _Everclear Paradise_? What kind of stupid name for a hotel is that?" Mercury snorted as the seven of them approached the building, exhausted, thirsty and hungry. Fighting a giant genetically modified Grimm, followed by the 2-hours-long trip back to the town of Orlén, hadn't been the roughest day of their lives, but it hadn't been easy, either. They had stumbled into the town, their ragtag group attracting quite a few eyes, especially the bloody bandages Roman, Taurus but most of all Mercury all wore.

And of course the grey-haired jackass had to comment on every single thing they saw, especially the hotel's name.

"Mercury, shut up."

Jaune was the one looking the best, both due to his regeneration, and because of his Grimm-enhanced stamina. Mercury had stopped bleeding from his chest, but he still looked worse for wear. Adam had a hand on his sword's handle, the other in a makeshift cast, and a blindfold over his eyes to cover his scar. Torchwick was seemingly fine, but his Aura was still very low. Summer and Ruby were still being carried by Jaune, both having fallen asleep in exhaustion, the older because of her time in the labs and the younger due to sheer lack of endurance.

And Neo, but Neo was actually fine and not just apparently.

"I hope they sell good alcohol in here because I want to get so smashed I won't even remember what planet am I on…" mumbled Torchwick, giving a suspicious look at the plain-looking interior of the local. It was spacious enough, not like Junior's of course but it wasn't even a tiny closet. There were five tables, plus the stools at the counter, but they ignored those as there weren't enough free spots. Two of the tables were taken as well, but that was to be expected. Plain-looking wooden stairs led upstairs, presumably to the bedrooms.

Mercury kicked out three more chairs from a nearby table and roughly placed them around their own, adding to the four initial ones so that everyone could sit. Jaune placed the two sleeping Huntresses down as well before prodding them awake. Summer was almost immediately awake, and she stood up so swiftly her chair almost fell. She was instead the one to fall as her lack of energies caught up with her, and she slumped back on the chair. She looked around, but Jaune's hand on her shoulder made her look up.

"We're in Orlén. You and Ruby fell asleep on our way here. We'll eat and sleep here. Tomorrow, I think we have a very long talk that awaits us. But for today let's just avoid to cause a scene." He scowled sideways at Mercury, who cocked an eyebrow challengingly. "Yes, I'm talking to you."

Summer nodded, but when she tried to thank him her voice failed her, her throat feeling too dry and sore to utter a sound. Jaune seemed to get the message, though, because he nodded back before waking Ruby up as well.

"Hey, do you think this shithole's got some actual Everclear, or do you think it's just a ruse to lure in customers?" Mercury wondered aloud, earning glances from the other customers, and a quite annoyed look from the waitress, who swiftly hid it under a neutral expression and made her way over.

She wasn't a particularly tall or large woman, but she definitely had the 'I'm the boss here' glare down to perfection. On any civilian, it was a glare that would've had them eating their words back up. On a normal Hunter, that glare would've made them back off from the argument. Alas, Mercury Black was neither, and he had faced greater threats before – even just a couple of hours before, when he had fought a motherfucking giant Deathstalker.

"We do have Everclear, _boy_ ," she remarked coolly, putting emphasis on the last word and pointing out Mercury's rather youthful appearance. That, or he was actually underage. "But I don't think you'll be getting one anytime soon if you don't show me proof you're of drinking age."

"Drinking age is as soon as you can stomach it," Mercury returned with a grin. "And I've had Everclear before. Honestly, it sucks. No flavour at all."

"Then why did you ask for it if you don't like it?"

"Me? When? I never asked for it, I never even said I wanted to order it." The boy's grin morphed into a confused, innocent face. "I was just wondering whether this local can actually live up to what it promises or if-"

"Ignore him, he's the village idiot of the group," Roman snorted, ignoring Mercury's heated glare and the waitress's amused one. "We got Lien, you got food, I suggest we make an exchange. As for that Everclear-"

"No alcohol no matter how much they ask for it," Jaune interrupted him. "We need a clear head tomorrow. Water is what you need, but I won't stop you from ordering other drinks. But no alcohol." He turned to the bartender. "Water and a cheeseburger, thank you."

"Pear juice and pomegranate juice for Neo and me," ordered Torchwick, knowing his companion's orders to heart. "Lamb meat skewers for both with fried chips. Also a large cream and chocolate ice cream topped with a strawberry for Neo."

The girl grinned and clapped her hands, but otherwise looked like ordering ice cream to go with meat skewers was a perfectly normal thing to do.

"Chicken curry rice for me, and make it _extra_ spicy," Taurus grumbled. "Red orange juice to go with that, and water to wash it down."

"I… uhhh… I don't have money with me…" Summer began hesitantly, but Torchwick waved her concerns aside by slapping a pile of Lien bills on the table. "W-Well… cheese f-focaccia bread and milk please."

"S-Same," added Ruby, yawning and stretching. "S-Same as Mom."

The waitress blinked. "You didn't even look at the menu."

"Let's just say our blond friend here is a native and told us on our way here, and the two sleepyheads heard part of it before falling asleep." Torchwick glanced at the two. "But seriously, focaccia for dinner?"

Summer blushed but shrugged. "It's been a decade since last time I had focaccia bread. It reminds me of when I made it myself."

"That doesn't matter," grumbled Taurus, turning to face Jaune. "So what now? We eat, we sleep, and then what?"

Jaune shrugged. "It's not something to discuss now. Let's leave the serious talk for tomorrow. Right now we're tired, hungry and -in your and Summer's case- just out of literal hell on Remnant. Better to have a clear mind when we talk. But I can tell you this: with Summer out of the labs, I think we could all go separate ways, and good luck with your goals."

/-/

Yang's breathing was ragged. Not out of fatigue, but out of anxiety.

There hadn't been a battle. She and Weiss hadn't even been really needed for the attack. The guards were taken down by the bandits, and if there really was a Hunter or two in town, Raven had killed them already. Now all there was to do, was to stand by as the raiders stole and pillaged the small town, leaving it on fire.

She grunted as she punched a Beowolf, killing it.

And of course the Grimm had run as fast as they could toward the village as soon as the attack had begun. For the time being, only low-class Grimm had arrived, like Beowolves, Ursai and Boarbatusks, alongside a few Grimm she had never seen nor read about. There were Grimm deer, Grimm spiders, even Grimm crocodiles – and Yang wasn't sure there was a river nearby.

Thankfully there weren't many of them yet, but she and the civilians had different meanings of 'not many'. For her, a few dozens Grimm were still few, but for a civilian they might as well have been an army. The bandits didn't help, either, as they gladly threw civilians at the Grimm to save their own skins – but that only increased the negativity and as such, the influx of Grimm.

Part of her wondered if Raven had planned for it to happen, or if the Grimm had just been a nasty surprise. She didn't want to believe any human being would willingly cause so much unneeded destruction, but everything pointed out how Raven should've expected the Grimm to interfere, and as such she had been fully willing to wipe out an entire village off the face of the planet.

That was the woman she had looked for her whole life.

 _'But I'm not doing this for her. I'm doing this for Ruby,'_ she told herself, forcing the unwanted thoughts away. _'I'm doing this so I will be able to find Ruby.'_

The thought only marginally assured her worries. She wasn't worried about the innocent blood on her hands – as long as she didn't become a murderer, she was okay with harming people to get her sister back safely. There was a reason why she was considered a bully back in Signal. Yang Xiao Long got what she wanted – and without compromises. The only compromise she accepted was beating the other into the ground.

 _'And look where that mindset has brought me.'_

Her mindset was simple, really. It wasn't as extreme as Raven's, but it wasn't too different, either. She wasn't evil, far from it, but she wasn't a Ruby either. The strong lives, the weak dies, that was true in a world like Remnant. Yang had simply adapted. It wasn't like she constantly subjugated others, but once she was serious about something, she did not allow anyone to stop her, even if it meant seriously harming them.

Punching her problems in the face had always been her modus operandi. In hindsight, the Arc sister didn't deserve what she did, but hindsight is everything or so people said. Only recently, after Raven had given her a little bit of information just to keep her interested, she had realized the huge flaw in her mindset.

She had never thought what would happen if she were to try and butt heads with someone stronger than her.

She had fought that Jaune Arc fellow, and she had been _obliterated_. A third of her Aura gone in a single punch, and her Semblance had done literally nothing to him even when she landed multiple critical strikes on him. She had no doubts that, were they to fight to the death, she'd be a bloody splatter on the floor before his Aura even fell into the yellow.

And Dust that was an annoying thought. She had trained to avoid exactly that, and it had plainly been thrown at her face how she still wasn't strong enough to protect Ruby. Had she been strong enough to break that Jaune Arc, she would've been able to save Ruby and bring her back, and instead she had failed.

An Ursa fell to her rage.

Raven had confirmed that Jaune Arc was probably above her combat skills level, if what she had heard about what happened at Junior's was true.

Yang sighed as the last Beowolf hit the ground, dead by bludgeoning trauma. She heard clapping behind her, coming from the street lined with houses on fire, and she turned to glare at the only person who would clap at her in the entire tribe – Raven Branwen.

"Good job. Even if you didn't kill anyone like I hoped, the raid is successful. Now we only need to go back to the camp." Raven's smirk turned into a sneer. "Then I'll bring you both to Vale, or wherever you wish to go, and our deal will be over. Shion's destruction in exchange for your and your friend's freedom. Wasn't it?"

"It was."

Raven tsked. "Good. Schnee, come here." Weiss appeared from behind one of the flaming buildings, holding her temporary weapon in her left hand, a simple unadorned sabre. Vernal appeared behind her, carrying two large backpacks with their weapons strapped on them. "Here is your stuff. Are you ready?"

Yang nodded. Weiss pursued her lips, but she did the same.

Raven smirked knowingly. "Very well then. It was a pleasure making affairs with you." In a split second, her weapon was out and slashing through the air, opening a red swirling portal as if it had cut straight through it. "Farewells."

Weiss ran through the portal, and Yang followed her, not before having flipped her 'mother' off.

The portal was instantaneous, pushing her from the ruins of Shion into a dingy-looking local. The floor was of wooden planks covered in grease stain and dirt. The windows were small and the glass so filthy it was opaque, not allowing light to filter in. A bunch of tables were cramped in the room, filled with people with less than reassuring looks. A rickety set of wooden stairs led upstairs, looking as frail as stairs could be. The powerful stench of alcohol and sweat permeated the air, so thick Yang felt the need to gag. But the worst detail of all was the man sitting at the counter, looking a them with shock slowly morphing into anger.

"Well, isn't it the two runaways…" commented Qrow Branwen.

 ** _Past 5k words, this one. Oh well. Four days to get this out, life is busy. Heads-up, I might disappear for the first week of April, visiting my sister in Scotland, but with the Brexit it's hard to tell if I'll go or not._**

 ** _SO~ Yang and Weiss didn't kill anyone, but they are guilty as accomplices. Again, not like Yang cares as long as it saves Ruby. A little bit of why Weiss is going along with this. It's no more because she wants to know Winter's secret, now it's to save her name - in canon, the whole reason why she went to Beacon in the first place. And Raven played one last trick on them, dropping them straight back in imprisonment. They shouldn't have trusted one of her portals._**

 ** _Anyway, for the hotel scene, keep in mind that, despite them being on an adventure, Remnant is a fantasy futuristic world. In the 1k-population town I live in we have... eight or so restaurants. Eight or so. There aren't just pubs over clubs over cafés in Remnant... or at least I don't think so._**

 ** _The 'large Aura reserves' thing, I've been told it has been confirmed as canon. Wasn't planning on inserting it, but if it's canon it's just another thing Mercury can joke about._**

 ** _Until next time,_**

 ** _Khor Evik Vlakhavlakh_**


	20. A Much Awaited Talk

**_Ugh... I'm sick. Sick sick sick. Coughing nonstop, and every cough hurts like hell my stomach and upper chest. Plus these days have been busy as hell. So yeah, work + sickness = not a great way to keep my updates up. Eight days is what it took me to write this. But the problem? I wrote this is two days. The first and the eighth. The others, I just couldn't._**

 ** _Anyway, I have a new poll on my profile, for Demonic Redemption's pairing. And now, onto the story. I've wasted enough time being sick to delay any further._**

The sun shined over Orlén, giving it a brief respite from the light but incessant rain that had drowned the morning. The streets were full of puddles, but at least the rain had washed off part of the dirt that had accumulated on it. On the walkways, few people shuffled by, most of the adults being at work and most of the kids being at school. The traffic was to a minimum too, as normal during late Tuesday mornings.

The building's gutter dripped water on the walkway, giving the impression of it being still raining to those watching the windows from within the local. The rain had drummed against the roof all night, but for those sleeping at the hotel it had been a calming sound rather than an annoying one.

The restaurant part of the _Everclear Paradise_ was mostly empty aside from a few tables. At one, a lone elder woman sat, enjoying her coffee after a quick breakfast, ready to take on the road once again. In a corner ate a small family of four – two men with a boy and a younger girl so similar they could've passed as twins. The children's sleepy eyes spoke much of how late their breakfast was.

The last group was a larger group of seven people fitting in a table for four, and probably the weirdest group that had ever passed through that town. A blond boy with nondescript grey pants and shirt too big for him sat beside a short girl with brown and pink hair and a similar colour-themed outfit. On the other side of the blond there was a tall Faunus with two black horns sticking out of a mess of red hair and a strip of black cloth over his eyes. On the other end of the table sat a man with orange hair and jade eyes, sided by a short girl with red-tipped black hair and silver eyes, and a boy with grey eyes and hair. Between the girl and the Faunus sat an older version of the silver-eyed girl, though much more starved-looking.

Each of them was holding a cup of coffee, though with various amounts of milk and sugar, from the Faunus's blackest possible blend to the girl's overly-sugared one.

"So," began Roman, hating the cliché ice-breaker but not knowing any better way to start. He had tried, like everyone else, he had really tried, but his mind hadn't supplied him any better start. "What's the topic for today?"

"No idea, Grimm Boy said something about splitting up yesterday," shrugged Mercury, waving at Jaune with his cup. "So I guess he should be the first one to speak, am I right?"

"Yeah you are. But honestly, I'm surprised none of you thought about this before." The only blond of the group took half a sip from his coffee before continuing. "We got Summer out of the labs. Adam too, though we didn't know he was there. Mission complete, everyone can go home. There is no need for all of us to stick together – especially because we stick out like a sore thumb. Some of us are already wanted for crimes – and I'm only refraining from saying all of us because of Summer. There's no point in sticking together any more now that ours goals have been reached. I thought you would've been the first to catch up and leave."

If the criminals were disturbed by his words, they didn't show it at all. Mercury kept twirling the coffee in his cup without a care in the world, Adam's only reaction was to drink a little bit of his own bitter beverage, Neo was smirking as usual, and Torchwick continued to stare at him as if waiting for him to go on.

The two Roses had quite the different reaction. Summer seemed to try to speak while drinking, resulting in a coughing fit and teary eyes – though the latter maybe weren't related to the cough. Ruby slammed her cup down, spilling it all over the table, and stood up in shock. "No!"

When the rest of the patrons looked her way, she blushed and sank back in her chair. "W-We can't split up… Mum's not home yet!"

"Sorry Little Red, but I don't think that having her escorted home by a bunch of wanted criminals is the best idea," Roman snarked with a smirk. "So we can split up. We'll put you two on a train and pam! Our mission is over."

"That would actually be the best course of action," Taurus agreed in a soft, rumbling voice as he placed his empty cup on the table. "We have all different goals. There is no point in sticking together any more."

"Unlike you, Bullman, some of us were using this mission as a way to stay under the radar," Roman retorted with an edge in his voice. "I thought it'd take longer, not that we'd be done in a couple of weeks. For my part, I'm waiting for Blondie to come up with a follow-up mission."

"Watch your tongue, _human_ ," Adam spat back, immediately angry, placing his hands on the table as if to rise from his seat.

"Stop bickering, you two," Jaune snapped. "It is true that this took less than I thought, but that's a good thing. Sending Ruby and Summer home is also the best course of action, but I never said _you_ had to split up too. You can work together if you wish."

Everyone stared at the boy in a deadpan. "I worked with you only because it was the only way I'd survive," replied Taurus, crossing his arms over his chest. "I don't plan on continuing to stand the presence of these humans."

Mercury huffed, exasperated. "Seriously, what's with all the edginess? I get you don't like humans, but being all moody and dark all the time is not gonna solve the issue."

"What do you know about being subjugated?!" Taurus yelled in a furious whisper.

"A lot, but that's none of your business. Let's just say that I wasn't _born_ with metal legs," the grey-haired assassin shot back with equal bite, tapping his right knee. "Point is whining about it is not going to change anything. Either you shut up and take it, or you shut up and rebel."

Adam snorted. "I was the leader of-"

"And I think that's enough details for everyone involved, given where we are," Torchwick smoothly cut in, making a show of looking around. The other patrons weren't even looking their way, but Roman was paranoid sometimes. Not like Jaune could blame him. Only the knowledge he had three people way better than him at perception kept him from constantly looking around to check potential threats. "We all know who you were, Bullman, you don't have to state it out loud for everyone to hear."

As Taurus settled down again, Jaune slowly exhaled through his nose. "I didn't mean start making a scene, I meant think of what you're gonna do. Roman, Mercury and Neo can't exactly go back to Vale, given they have a mysterious common ex-boss who wants their heads. Adam, I'm guessing you want to go back to your organization, but if you've been dethroned and imprisoned once, I doubt it'll go much differently the second time around. Summer and Ruby aren't really in this mess, so they can leave without consequences. So, what are your plans?"

"I'm not just leaving you like that!" Ruby immediately spoke up. "You helped me save Mom, I need to repay you!"

"I am with my daughter on this," agreed the older Rose. "We have to repay our debt. Please, let us help."

"That's stupid," Mercury snapped bluntly. "We already have professionals on our asses if what Red says about her uncle is true, plus a bunch of Beacon idiots, only because we have the girl. I have no fucking idea why she's so damn important, but there's no way we're keeping such a hot potato. Besides, it's not like we need more fighters."

"I agree with Mercury, if you two return home safely, maybe they'll stop chasing after us. They haven't caught us yet, but that's still a very big possibility," nodded Jaune, ignoring the two women's protests and turning to the others. "What about you? What do you plan on doing now?"

"No idea," shrugged the young assassin. "I ain't really got anything to do, to be frank, aside from staying away from the bitch."

"Same," added Torchwick, and Neo nodded.

"I will take back my organization from the hands of that human bitch," spat Taurus.

"Wait a second, you four all had the same boss?" Ruby asked, surprised.

"Yes, though it's better if you don't know about her. Hopefully, she's dead by now," grumbled Mercury, finishing his coffee with one last gulp. "She got roasted by Roman, and then we sicked a professional Hunter on her while we ran. She _should_ be dead by now. But she was a real bitch. Always threatening to kill you if you didn't obey, always on your ass, control freak, also a dumbass idiot who thought that death threats were a good way to keep her followers loyal, and who thought everyone else was dirt under her heels."

"Sounds like a horrible boss," noted Jaune. "How did she last that long?"

"She didn't last long at all," scoffed Torchwick. "Barely two months."

"Okay, that's just pathetic." Everyone cracked a little smile at that fact. Even Taurus was entertained by badmouthing his former oppressor.

"So what about you, Blondie?" Roman asked as soon as silence reigned again. "What are your plans for the future? You can't exactly go back to living a normal life after working with someone like me."

"I wasn't planning to. Even if Ruby and Summer try to keep the fact I'm a Grimm secret, sooner or later it'll come out, no matter how much they try to contain it. And when it does, I'm in big trouble." Jaune drained his own cup and set it back on the table. "But, if I'm with you when it does, I'll be harder to find, so I'm probably going to stick around and help you doing whatever you'll be doing."

"I got an idea," Mercury spoke up. "Red and Red go home to Daddy, and we help Bullhead here take back the White Fang. At least we'll have something to do, some fighting hopefully, and it'll be like spitting in Cinder's face, don't you think?"

"I'm all for it," nodded the only blond of the group.

"Ugh, not exactly what I envisioned myself doing, but it'll be entertaining until I get proof Cinder's dead and I can go back to Vale. Count us in," sighed Torchwick. Then he turned to the Faunus of the group. "Though it mostly depends on Bullman here."

"Stop calling me that, human," spat the man before calming down and frowning. "The White Fang doesn't need any dirty human helping us, but I am not in the White Fang any more, and I understand that just walking back in will only result in a fight breaking out. As much as agreeing to this disgusts me, I fear I have no choice… but I _will_ leave if you don't follow my orders."

"Stop ignoring us!" Ruby snapped. "We are coming along too. We just need to let our family know we're okay, but we'll help you!"

"Ruby, your family hasn't seen Summer since ten years ago. Do you really think they're just gonna be satisfied with 'knowing she's okay'?" Jaune asked rhetorically. "And if you do meet them to prove it, do you really think they are going to let you two go? With criminals? In a potentially highly dangerous mission? I don't think so."

"I…"

"It wouldn't be fair to them," continued the boy. "They don't want to risk losing you two again. Once has been enough. And while this mindset is not fair to _you_ , if you run away with us they're just gonna come after us twice as strongly as before to find you and bring you back – possibly alongside our corpses."

"Like we're going to let them," Summer growled darkly, shocking her daughter. "You saved my life, Jaune, in more than one way. I need to repay you. And while helping you take back a terrorist organization-" She ignored Adam's protests. "-is not what I thought it'd be, I'll gladly do it if it means I can repay my debt."

"And I'm not going to let you get in danger without me!" exclaimed Ruby, glaring determinedly at him.

Then Torchwick began to laugh, soon followed by Neo's silent snickers and Mercury's loud guffaws. Even Adam had a fist pressed against his lips to try to smother his amusement. Finally, the thief mastermind managed to calm down enough to address the three of them, who were rightfully frowning at such a display of wicked amusement. "Oh by Dust that was freaking hilarious. 'I'm not going to let you get in danger without me!'," the man mimicked Ruby's squeaky voice and roared in laughter again. "Oh that was priceless. So, so, _so_ naive…"

"I'm serious!"

"I know and that's what makes it so damn funny!" the thief shot back immediately.

"Okay, okay, okay, let's be serious now," Jaune cut in before turning to Ruby. "I understand you want to help, but-"

"No buts," Summer cut in. "We want to let our family know we're okay, but we too are coming along."

"If you really want to help, you'd help us more by just going home," Jaune continued, ignoring Summer's interruption. "We don't need more fighters, but what we do need is to stay under the radar, and that'd be kinda hard if half of Vale's Hunters are searching for us because Ruby is with us. And if they catch wind that you are with us too, then they'd search twice as hard."

"I don't care!" the woman snapped. "You saved my life over and over for almost a decade, and I _will_ stand by you, because that is what is right!"

"Jeez, I noticed you had the hots for him, Red, but chill…" snorted Torchwick, and soon the conversation degenerated to a point of no return.

/-/

"Yang, your mother is a bitch," Weiss repeated for the fourth time.

"I know."

The two of them were sitting side by side at a table in a far nicer place than the one Raven had dumped them in, and none less than Qrow Branwen sat before them, a highly alcoholic drink in his hand an a closed Scroll in the other. Medicine for him and a threat for them, respectively. Neither of them had requested anything when the young waiter had asked for their order, nor when the same guy had brought the Hunter a large bottle of clear Atlasian Vodka and a glass. Not a shot glass, a normal glass Weiss was sure shouldn't have been used to drink such a super alcoholic.

The place they were staying at, the _Ray of Sunshine_ restaurant, was leagues apart from the dingy local Qrow had been drinking at when they had arrived. The white tiled pavement was clean, though not polished to a mirror, and the waiters were all respectable-looking people, all dressed in the same unisex blue and gold uniform. The walls were adorned with bright paintings of orange suns and azure clouds, matching the colours of the tablecloths, which were embroidered with small twisting golden lines – the rays of sunshine, Weiss guessed easily.

As opposite to the whole local around them, Qrow Branwen was not bright and happy. The man was scowling at them and Weiss had to admit she felt more than a little intimidated by the drunk at the moment.

"I'm going to recap everything you've done so far. Try to follow me without breaking the law, okay?" he spoke up once he had gotten a few sips of alcohol in his body. Weiss shrank at the jab, but Yang barely seemed to be affected, staring right into the man's eyes. "After Ruby disappeared, you were allowed to _subtly_ search for hints. In a show of comradeship I was _not_ expecting from a team such as yours, you _all_ went to Hei Xiong's club and, instead of discreetly asking for information, you tore up the whole local. Then, by a stroke of luck or maybe _bad_ luck, given how it ended, the very people you were looking for walked into the club, and you immediately engaged in combat. You all lost and you're lucky they didn't bother killing any of you. Then, after you were harshly lectured about discreetness and explicitly told not to get involved any more, you went and injured seven innocent civilians – who also happened to be close relatives to the guy who kicked both your asses, and is probably really pissed about it if he knows."

Qrow stopped just enough to take a swig from his glass before continuing. "After being _fairly_ and _rightfully_ punished, you then decided to avoid your punishment and escape, joining my sister's bandit tribe. Before you lie and deny, we had security cameras in your dorm at the time, and I can recognize one of my sister's portals when I see it. So, you joined a tribe of cutthroats and thieves to get your freedom. I don't know what you did to repay Raven – but I doubt it was something good. And now you are here. Is there something I missed, or did I get it all?"

"I am doing this for Ruby," Yang replied with a stony expression.

"Winter and I were on this case already."

"Well, you weren't doing such a great job, now were you?"

"Did you do any better?" At her silence, Qrow snorted. "Thought so. No, I'm not getting any lead, but this might change soon. You instead? You got nothing, and wasted everything. You do realize that your careers as Huntresses are _over_ no matter what you do? And that you both will probably spend half a decade in prison because of what you've done?"

"Not if we find Xiao Long's sister," Weiss managed to say despite her nerves, years of being taught how to properly act being the only thing keeping her from showing her anxiety.

"Not if you find Ruby, but honestly, do you really think you can just find them like that?" Qrow snorted derisively. "Grow up, children. You aren't invincible, and you aren't infallible."

"So what now?" Yang asked, ignoring his latest remark. "You gonna force us back to Ozpin or what?"

"I don't have time to properly drag you there, and anyone less than myself would only end up beaten to death by you two once you decide to run away again. I'm not saying you will avoid punishment, but for now, you're gonna stick by me until I can tie you up with a nice bow and gift-mail you back to Ozpin." Qrow's glare narrowed as he stared at Yang specifically. "I thought you'd be better than your mother, firecracker. So far, you've proved me wrong."

"What is that supposed to mean?!" Yang burst out, slamming her hands on and through the table, shattering the wood with easy and making all other patrons look at them in worry and fear.

"You use violence to get whatever you want, and you live by the rule of the strongest. If someone's not strong enough to beat you, you can walk all over them. Isn't this exactly what happened at Xiong's Club, _twice_? Or what happened at Signal? Or what happened every time I got a complaint from a student back when I was professor, telling me you were tossing them around whenever you got in an argument?"

"Those little bastards snitched?!" exclaimed Yang, with her eyes taking the now familiar to Weiss red tint characteristic of her Semblance and anger.

"They told a professor _like they should've_. Now, I know you're not a bad person – but for how long, if you go on like this?" Qrow emptied his glass and placed it back down. "How long can you go having it your way by force, without becoming like your mother? You must be contained. And that's what Tai and I are gonna do as soon as we find Ruby again. No more missions for me until your first impulse in an argument is to solve it verbally instead of with your fists."

Yang's eyes narrowed, and that was when Qrow decided to play his last card. It was a dirty trick, sure, but hopefully it would cool down the girl's anger temporarily. "What would Ruby think, if she knew what you've done?" As predicted, the blonde froze in her attempt to speak. "What would she think if she knew that her big sister became a bully, a criminal, maybe even a murderer? Do you really think she'd be proud of you?"

Yang's hands clenched into fists, and for a second Weiss thought she'd cave and admit she was wrong. However, her hands remained clenched, and her glare intensified. "It doesn't matter what she thinks. What matters is that she's okay, and right now she's not okay. I don't care what she thinks as long as she's okay, even if she has to hate me."

The old Huntsman held her gaze for a long second before sighing and closing his eyes. "Damn it, I usually leave educational speeches and all that shit to Oz, now I know why." Opening his deep red eyes again, he fixed them with a glare. "I got errands to run and places to be, and I don't trust you to come along. We'll meet again here tonight at seven, no later. If you're not here, then I'll have to find you and drag you back, delaying _even further_ Ruby's rescue."

The Huntsman rose from his seat waved a waiter over, taking out enough Lien bills to pay for his drink _and_ for the table. Before he could leave, though, Yang spoke up again. "Hey, I never caught the name of this place."

Qrow snorted and didn't even turn as he walked out of the door, before calling over his shoulder, "Well, ladies, you're currently in the lovely town of Orlén, Jaune Arc's former hometown."

/-/

"So~"

"So…"

The two silver-eyed women glanced at each other awkwardly, having finally run out of topics to talk about. The sun was nearing the horizon, and the silence between them was heavier than lead. The room was almost empty aside from them, and a young trio of friends eating in a corner, their comrades having left a few hours earlier.

Jaune had gone for supplies, being known by the shopkeepers he had been the best choice. A disguised Torchwick had been accompanied by Neo and Mercury to get them all new clothes – Jaune had offered to cloth shop as well, but the fashionable thief had been all but horrified at the idea of someone other than him choosing his clothes. Adam was upstairs, resting in his room, and it made sense given how he couldn't take his blindfold off, and thus appeared more than a little suspicious.

That left the two women all by themselves, and they surely hadn't complained about it. It had given them the time to talk and to play catch-up for the ten years they hadn't seen each other. At first it had been tentative, slow attempts at conversation, but after a while it became more and more natural to keep talking. Some subjects were carefully avoided, like Summer's sufferance and Ruby's mourning, but others were addressed directly – like how Ruby was doing in school, or how much she'd grown since last time, or how the rest of the family was doing.

Infallibly, the conversation lulled back into silence as the two of them just sat at the table, avoiding eye contact, and just as infallibly, Ruby eventually found another question bouncing around in her mind.

"Mom… did Jaune really save you that many times when you were prisoner?"

Summer Rose didn't answer right away. Her eyes looked far, far beyond the girl in front of her, far beyond anything in the room, gazing into another time and place. A small, forlorn smile opened on her face as her eyes dulled. Only then she answered the question with as much honesty as she could. "He did. Maybe he does not know he did, but the White Glow saved me from desperation and hopelessness many, _many_ times. Without it, I wouldn't have survived, I am sure of that."

Ruby looked down at the table and traced the lines of the tablecloth with her finger. "Yet another thing I can never repay him for…" she breathed softly, going almost unheard even by her mother.

"But we are," said the woman, placing a supporting hand over her daughter's. "We are helping him help the others."

"I didn't mean it like that," replied Ruby, shaking her head. "Jaune doesn't think I owe him, or you do. He thinks he's just doing what was useful to him, and that we shouldn't thank him for that."

"Ah, but it doesn't matter what he thinks, what matters is that we _do_ owe him," smiled Summer. "And we will try to repay our debt, won't we?"

The younger silver-eyed girl nodded slowly, a tiny smile coming to her face as well.

"So, you like him?"

The sudden question caught her off-guard, causing her to choke and sputter denials as she turned as red as her namesake. Summer's slowly widening smirk wasn't helping, either. "W-What?! No! Ew! Of course I-I don't like him!"

"Someone sounds in denial~" the woman sing-sang mercilessly, feeling the exhilaration of motherly teasing for the very first time. It was almost addicting. Yet another wonderful thing Sadist and Cold had taken from her.

"Mooom! I-It's not like that!" protested the poor blushing girl, waving her hands around while at the same time trying to pull her hood over her face. Glaring balefully at her with one single silver eye, the girl grumbled in protest. "Stop teasing me…"

"Oh come on, he's really nice, and not bad in the looks department either, though he could use a haircut and some more flesh on those bones," Summer continued evenly. "And he's certainly a caring person-"

"Not for us."

Summer's speech halted at the gloomy tone of the girl's voice, who lowered her eyes to gaze at the floor. "What?"

"You said he's a caring person. Not for us. He cares for his sisters and no one else. We have no place in his heart," the girl explained sadly, a depressed expression settling on her face. And that wouldn't do, because Summer knew better.

"He does care for you," she said softly. "Otherwise, he wouldn't have stepped in to save us from the Deathstalker. And furthermore, he wouldn't have gotten angry enough to transform. You said the only other time he did was when his sisters were hurt – and then again when _we_ were hurt. I believe this means he really cares for us both."

Ruby pursued her lips, deep in thought, before she energetically nodded. "Yeah, you're right!" she beamed happily. "He cares for the both of us!"

Summer's heart ached slightly, but if it was to make her daughter happy, then she'd gladly ignore her own feelings. Maybe going back to Tai was still possible. Maybe too much time still hadn't passed… even if it had been a decade since last time she had seen him.

It was just a matter of ignoring her feelings for a short while still.

/-/

Adam Taurus didn't relish the fresh air brushing against his blindfolded face and rustling through his unruly hair, nor did he enjoy the thrill of adrenaline as he jumped high over the gaps between the roofs, landing light as a feather without a sound, wasting no time as he immediately began to run again. The people in the streets were too busy to look up as his shadow passed over them, and the sun had long since dried the roofs' tiles, making it easier for him to keep running without slipping.

As he ran, the Faunus couldn't help but inwardly snort. Working with humans had never been on his wish list, and would never be, no matter how skilled or useful they could be. He still didn't know how to feel about the Grimm boy. He had lived most of his life as human and still looked human, but technically _wasn't_ human any more. Torchwick, Black, the little assassin, and the two women were definitely human though, and he wouldn't be caught dead working with them. Not even to take back the White Fang.

He knew it wouldn't be easy, but his whole life hadn't been easy, and he had powered through it nonetheless. He would learn from his mistakes, and take back his position with subtlety.

He frowned. The three criminals would've been a huge help in that regard.

Immediately, he mentally smacked himself and shook his head. He didn't want to work with humans as a principle. It wasn't that the humans were useless.

If anything, the opposite. With them, it'd be much easier to ascend once again to leader of the White Fang.

Once again he had to berate himself for even just thinking that. Humans were his enemies, no matter how useful they were. His eyes narrowed. Especially Black and Torchwick, those two racists…

 _'Even though they, as opposite to most, didn't use those nicknames to insult me,'_ his mind treacherously told him. He shook his head again to chase away those traitorous thoughts, and in doing so, he caught a flash of white standing out in the flow of passer-bys.

He froze, and slowly turned. _'I don't believe it… here… of all places…'_

A Schnee.

His hand instinctively closed around Wilt's handle, gripping it tightly.

A curvaceous blonde was walking right next to the Schnee, talking and gesturing animatedly, saying something about a girl named…

Taurus's grip doubled.

If they were looking for the young girl, they were looking for the whole group. Torchwick had blabbed about a group of teenagers they had 'fought' at a club, including a blonde and a Schnee, both of which had been strangled into unconsciousness by the Grimm boy. Taurus was torn between despising him for not having killed the Schnee, and being grateful because he now had the chance to do it himself.

His eyes, hidden under the cloth, never left the duo as he began to crawl back to the hotel.

 ** _Ouch ouch ouch. Coughing hurts. Everything hurts, actually, and yes I'm taking medicines._**

 ** _So~! (cough cough ouch ouch) There was a lot in this chapter. Qrow's burn, and not from the alcohol, the group's conversation - which we still don't know how it ended, so we don't know if they'll send Summer and Ruby home or not. What am I saying, of course they decided to send them home, the real question is am I gonna allow that?_**

 ** _...Probably not. Not feeling merciful today, not ever._**

 ** _A little bit of romance never hurts, especially if then we have Edgelord Sociopath Adam Taurus's PoV immediately afterwards! (cough cough cough ouch ouch ouch... exclaiming stuff hurts too... )_**

 ** _And with this cliffhanger, I close the chapter._**

 ** _Until next time,_**

 ** _Khor Evik Vlakhavlakh_**

 ** _PS: cough cough cough cough..._**


	21. A Meeting Gone Horribly Wrong

**_Hey guys! Only three/four days and I'm updating again - it's the work! Working as a translator makes my writing go up a lot! Maybe. Not sure. Nightmares are still here, if they could kindly scram from my nights I'd be very grateful, and here's the chapter._**

Yang Xiao Long wasn't happy. Far from it, actually. The only thing she could even remotely call happiness was the fact she was not back in imprisonment, and was glad of it. Other than that, she did not see how she could feel any kind of contentment in her current position.

First of all, she still hadn't found Ruby, and that was the main cause of her discontent. She had sacrificed everything to find her, and she still wasn't any closer to her sister. Part of her wanted to be angry at Ruby for taking the risk of fighting Torchwick and being so incautious, but eventually it didn't matter any more. As soon as she found her, actually, Ruby would be grounded for the rest of her life. And if Yang couldn't become a Huntress, fine! She'd remain at home and make sure Ruby didn't get in trouble again. Better lock her in her room than risk losing her again. She knew her thoughts weren't completely rational, they hadn't been ever since she'd failed to get Ruby back at Junior's, but the important part weren't the details, it was saving her sister.

A great part of her anger was also directed at her 'partner', Weiss Schnee, the most arrogant bitch on the face of the planet. Always so high and haughty, she was the polar opposite of Yang. Where she was passionate, she was cold. Where she trusted her instincts, she was logical and calculating. Where she used her strength, she used precision. And where she cared for her sister, she only cared about herself and her reputation. Yang couldn't stand her. Even as they 'worked together' to save Ruby, she freely admitted she would've preferred Cardin over her. Sure, he was an asshole and all, but at least he wouldn't question every single command just for the sake of protesting – he wasn't that stupid.

She was also angry at Junior and the Arc sisters. While her actions might've crossed the line, she had still been in the right – she had still been trying to do the right thing and save her sister from a criminal. True, they didn't deserve what she did to them, but they had still plainly hindered her even though they knew she was searching for her sister. And besides, Junior was a mafia boss, and an info broker. He should face charges way worse than hers. Instead, he got off scot-free thanks to the club's insurance, while she was punished for trying to do her job as Huntress! And if that wasn't enough, Ozpin and even _her uncle Qrow_ were against her. Qrow, the same man who didn't hesitate to threaten Junior and deal with criminals to get Ruby back. He'd committed the same crimes as her, yet he was being praised instead of punished.

All because he had a Hunter license, a mission directly from Ozpin, and a reputation to match the amount of alcohol he drank every day.

A fucking formality, and fame.

That was what she didn't have. Methods? She got them right. Skills? Not at Qrow's level of course, but she was far from a pushover. Contacts to get info? …while she wouldn't exactly count Junior as a contact, he did count as an informant. Ways to get somewhere? She had her bike. All she didn't have was a damn formality. Her name wasn't in the list of official Hunters, and as such she was being punished for overstepping the line instead of praised for her initiative.

And finally she was angry at that bitch of her biological mother. True, she hadn't dropped them back at Beacon, but after Qrow explained her Semblance to them, it was clear she wouldn't have been able even if she'd wanted to. She had tricked them, and had meant to trick them since the start. The only -small- positive side of her dishonesty was that they could search Orlén for hints – not that she believed they would find anything, of course. Still, it was more time for them out of imprisonment.

Who knows, maybe they'd even be able to escape Qrow and get back to finding Ruby.

She knew Qrow was a damn good Hunter, but even he wasn't infallible. Far from it, going by how his search for Ruby was going. He was also very busy at the moment, asking Oum knew who about Oum knew what, probably all very shady stuff if the pub they had found him in was anything to go by. If the two of them run off, they could probably disappear, and they'd have all the time in the world to get Ruby back. And then, Qrow and Ozpin and everyone would see she was right after all.

Was she really asking too much? She didn't think so.

"Yeah, you're right!" a chillingly familiar voice rang out from the hotel they were walking by. "He cares for the both of us!"

Yang froze, and Weiss almost bumped into her. It wasn't possible, yet she would never mistake that voice. There of all places, where Qrow himself was, and yet she had been the one to find her. It seemed almost like fate's hand had a part in it. And it was close, so very close, close enough that she could just turn and-

Ruby.

And an older version of her, in a white cloak.

Yang turned to stone.

 _"Mom! Mom! Can I have cookies?" a six-year-old Yang asked as she attached herself to the woman's leg. Her mother smiled and ruffled her hair, silver eyes shining under the dark red bangs._

 _"Of course you can. Make sure Ruby doesn't eat them all, I'm counting on you."_

 _"Thanks Mom, you're the best!"_

 _Little Yang run off behind the woman to grab the plate overloaded with chocolate chip cookies, still slightly steaming, fresh from the oven. Summer laughed and helped her daughter carry the cumbersome object. "Calm down, my little sun dragon. Pay attention or you'll trip."_

"Yang? Yang! What are you looking at?" She was broken out of her reverie as Weiss annoyingly waved a hand in front of her. For a second, she thought about grabbing that hand and snapping her fingers, but then she thought better of it. Besides, there was no time to waste, so even Weiss's action was welcome.

She took a deep breath. That had to be an illusion or trick of some kind. Her eyes widened. Of course! Ruby's letter had mentioned going after her mother! And there sat a woman who looked _exactly_ like their late mother. Yang's hands clenched into fists and she growled.

Ruby had been tricked by false hopes. She believed that impostor to be her mother.

Her hair exploded in flames.

/-/

Qrow Branwen wasn't having a good day. Not only he was still relatively sober -which _always_ made his mood go down quite a bit- but his hothead of a niece and her bitchy Ice Queen Jr partner were making things twice as hard for him! He knew the right thing to do would be to bring them back to Ozpin and then go on with his search, but deep down, he hoped he wouldn't need to.

After all, if he found Ruby soon enough, he could return in triumph, and maybe lessen the punishment for Yang – and the Schnee brat too, at least as thanks for Winter's help during the mission. True, the Ice Queen Sr wasn't with him this time, but she had paid eighty thousands Lien to get Junior to spill the beans about Torchwick. Beans that had turned out to be old and rotten, but that had still been useful in a way. Going by what Junior had told him, Ruby had yet to be harmed, so there was a big chance for her to be still unharmed.

And if he brought her back safe and sound, who knew, maybe Yang would only need to pay for some damage, do some community service, and undergo some years of Anger Management therapy, without having to give up her dream to become a Huntress.

 _'Ugh… what I don't do for my nieces…'_ he groaned. Those two were going to be the death of him one day.

"RRRAAAAAAAARRRRRGGGGHHH!"

…Probably sooner rather than later.

/-/

Adam Taurus hated himself for it, but he jumped in the blonde's way, blade halfway drawn, and parried the heavy punch she was trying to deliver to Summer. He wasn't doing that because of loyalty or friendship, far from it, but he figured that he didn't need to start a three-way battle in a hotel like that. If he could keep the two humans from thinking of him as an enemy, then he could win this battle. He just needed to engage and finish it quickly.

He pushed the blonde off and sheathed Wilt again. Using Moonslice would just cause even more of a ruckus, and he truly didn't want to have the whole police department of Orlén on his ass because of that. Better to let them drag the blonde away and leave him alone with the Schnee.

His hatred called for her blood, but he reigned himself in… for the moment.

" **Fuck off!** " screamed the girl in front of him. He took a split second to study her. Her hair seemed aflame, and her red eyes were proof of his theory of a berserker-style warrior. Her muscle mass was considerable, and her gauntlets could shoot, if he felt the hit right – and he usually did. Some buckshot type of shotgun, which would greatly increase the force of her punches if they were to connect.

He wasn't planning on letting them.

"Yang?!" He heard the younger human, Ross or whatever, shout out the girl's name. The only kindness he'd show her would be not to kill her sister – if she stayed out of his way, of course. He figured he could 'repay' her for freeing him from the labs with the others. It wasn't like it costed him much: if she left the fight, he'd let her and focus on the Schnee either way.

"Ruby, stay away from them!" the blonde, Yang, roared again, but this time her voice sounded more normal, less animalistic. "I'm coming to save you!"

"That is your sister?" Adam's grip on Wilt became crushingly tight as the accursed Schnee brat spoke up, her voice imbued with the lordliness and arrogance so common in her family. His left eye began to burn in phantom pain, and more than ever he felt his hatred growing, threatening to overflow and make him lose control…

"Yang, no! They are helping me! He's a friend!"

Friend? That damned thief was right after all, the girl _was_ unbelievably naive. They had known each other for barely a day, and there she went calling him her friend? It'd be a nice day in the Schnee mines when he were to be friends with a human. However, whether she actually meant it or not, he could see it for what it really was, believed or not. She was trying to make the blonde stop fighting.

She probably knew he wouldn't have mercy.

She was right.

"I'll be right there, Ruby, hang on!"

"Yang-" Summer's voice seemed to have the opposite effect of Ruby's.

" **Shut up you bitch! I'm gonna kill you, you impostor!** " the girl screamed, stunning the two women behind him as she launched herself forwards again.

This time, she was met with a kick from a heeled boot that did _not_ belong to him. He was torn between snorting or groaning. Of course Roman's little sidekick would get there so fast – what could a teleportation Semblance _not_ do when it came to movement? Obviously Torchwick and the others had heard the shout, and the midget had been charged to check on them.

How sweet.

And that probably meant the Grimm boy was on his way back too – which meant avoiding a ruckus was impossible now, not when he would try to chomp off the two girls' heads. While he would welcome the sight of the Schnee brat's headless corpse falling into a pool of her own blood, he wasn't stupid enough to think a large Grimm monster would go unnoticed, especially if he were to start going on a rampage in the middle of the town.

So they either cleaned it up quickly, or all hell would break loose.

The bicoloured midget landed beside him, pink and white coloured hair flying in her face before she brushed it aside with an elegant hand. Long hair was so impractical, he'd always tried to tell Blake that. It could be grabbed, and even more importantly it was a huge distraction, sometimes going as far as limiting peripheral sight. He really couldn't understand why warriors such as them would ever keep their hair long – Blake would've looked good even with short hair, so why bother? It wasn't like she'd be ugly without long hair.

His musing was cut short by a quick elbow in the side of his ribcage, courtesy of his newly arrived ally. He shot her an angry glare, but didn't speak – he knew she had been right, after all, in getting his attention back in the fight.

"Yang, what are you doing!? It's Mom!" Ruby shouted, raising from her seat and standing in front of her mother as if trying to protect her. "Stop it!"

" **Step aside Ruby, that's not Mom! Mom is dead, they are just tricking you!** " the blonde roared, and Ruby flinched, going as white as a ghost at the remark.

Taurus barely noticed the change, too busy analysing the fight. With the midget beside him, they had a very high chance of winning before anyone else arrived, be it the Grimm boy or the police. He had no doubt they would win, it was only a matter of how long it would take.

Still, riling his opponent up to make her attack and tire out would be a good idea. He almost regretted not having the male assassin around, or that damn thief. Those two were good at annoying their opponents – and their allies alike, but that was beside the point. However, just for this time, he would take the initiative, and take their places. "Some daughter you must be," he snorted derisively, stance tense and waiting for an attack. "Not even recognizing her own mother – you must really love her a lot."

As predicted, that sent the blonde over the edge. She exploded in flames -pushing the Schnee standing with a fencing stance nearby off-balance- and used her gauntlets to shot off toward him. He ignored Ruby's cry of warning, or maybe plea, and drew his sword, intent on cleaving her a couple of times before sending her back. However, before he could, an annoyingly familiar bicoloured blur shot past him and kicked the blonde in the stomach, interrupting her momentum, before backflipping and landing a butterfly kick on her face, sending her flying back. He wanted to be angry at her, but he found out he couldn't: if she had chosen the blonde as her opponent, that meant he had the Schnee, and she'd just done him a favour.

He dashed forth, his right hand on his sword's hilt while the other held his sheathe, ready to turn it into a rifle in case he needed to.

Finally something good was coming out of that mess.

A huge sword cleaved that notion in two, as well as the air not five feet ahead of him. Adam halted immediately and brought his sword up to block the powerful follow-up, which was strong enough to make him skid back a little. Jumping backwards to put some distance between him and his new assailant, he scowled at his misfortune.

The greyish black hair, slight stubble on his chin, dull red eyes, grey shirt with black pants and red cape, and most of all the huge greatsword he held in his hands were a dead giveaway. Qrow fucking Branwen – someone he really didn't want to fight and, if the midget's shock was anything to go by, neither did his ally.

"Uncle Qrow! Stop! There's no need to fight!"

He really wished the girl could keep her mouth shut. Or at least talk as she fought, instead of hesitating just because she didn't want to hurt either party.

Interestingly enough, though, the man before him did heed her words, and took a defensive stance instead of attacking. "Yang!" he barked out without looking, and Adam had to give it to him: he knew when an opponent needed to be kept in sight all the time. "Calm down! That's an order!"

The blonde looked like she very much wanted to go on fighting, but at least she avoided attacking again – if anything to prevent the midget from handing her own ass to her.

"They tricked Ruby!" she shouted angrily.

"Yes, but charging head on isn't gonna solve anything!" the man barked back.

Adam was amused by the Schnee brat's reaction. She rolled her eyes, looking as if she wanted to be there even less than the terrified waiters hiding behind the counter. Not out of fear, but out of apparent disinterest. So like a Schnee, committing crimes and then trying to look like innocents and victims. At least he took full responsibility for everything he did, instead of hiding behind an empty sentence or two, and calling everyone liar and slanderer whenever he was accused of being a criminal.

The Schnees were far less sincere.

The only thing they weren't ready to deny was money. Everything else was unimportant as long as they got what they wanted. Money, power, property, reputation – the only four things a Schnee understood and wanted.

He glanced behind himself just in time to see Summer open her mouth to say something. He glared at her and put a finger to his lips, telling her to stay silent before running said finger across his mouth in the universal sign of 'be mute'. If they truly believed her to be an impostor, it was best if she only spoke when prompted – and didn't try to appeal to them.

"It's not a trick!" Adam wanted to slam his head into a wall. "She's real! I found Mom!"

"Shut up everyone!" roared the Faunus, deploying his rifle and firing at the ceiling. While the owners wouldn't be happy about it, he couldn't care less, and at least it did the job. Once he was the centre of everyone's attention, as much as he despised what he was doing, he began trying to settle the moment without needing to fight. While he usually enjoyed, even sought fights, taking the risk with so many unknowns, and with so much confusion among the four family members was _not_ on his to-do list for the day.

He had just wanted to quietly leave the group and disappear. Heck, in a way he was even doing them a favour – they wouldn't need to help him for anything. Then, he had just wanted to fight and kill the Schnee brat, preferably without causing too much of a ruckus and without getting found by his 'allies'. Why had Fate decided to drop him in such a situation, he didn't know, but he'd play with the hand he'd been dealt. He'd done so his whole life, one more mess to get out of wasn't anything that concerned him.

"Is it bad I'm not surprised you'd do something like that?"

Taurus actually groaned at that. Of all damn times…

All the combatants turned to analyse the two newcomers, with Qrow looking the most taken aback. Which _of course_ meant he had recognized them despite their disguises, and that really didn't bode well for them.

Adam just hoped the Grimm boy wouldn't show up just as quickly as they did.

/-/

Mercury Black lazily observed the scene in front of him.

Smashed wall to allow access even without using the door? Check. Terrified civilians hiding in the stupidest of places? Check. Two sides, facing off each other? Check. Big-tittied girl? Check, now he was only waiting for her to die in some stupid way. Professional fighter staring down his opponent? Triple check for Branwen, Taurus and Neo. Uncertain or reluctant fighters? Double check for Red and Red. Stupid fighter trying to attack mindlessly and being stopped every time, to everyone's amusement? Check, though without the amusement part.

Seriously, it was like they _wanted_ him to make a comment.

Oh well, if that was what they wanted…

"Okay guys, where are the cameras? Gotta put on my best evil smirk," he stated as flatly as he could, regarding the whole lot of them with a raised eyebrow. "Because this is something straight out of an action movie. The low-budget ones."

"Hygin… or whatever your name is." And there went his humour. For a drunk, Qrow Branwen really didn't know how to have fun sometimes. "So you're working with them now."

"Well, you know, the pay's good, company could do better but I'm used to jackasses, and the workload's pretty light," shrugged the assassin, ignoring the actual question behind it entirely. "And what about you? Since when a Hunter such as yourself takes missions with brats?"

"Who are you call-"

"Case and point, thank you for your useless input, Schnee." The girl was fuming, but apparently she had enough brain not to attack immediately. Good, that meant the only one who would attack unprompted was the busty blonde – and damn if he hadn't noticed the size of her rack. Those things were as big as his head! Still, he had a fight to either solve, make worse, or have fun in, depending on how Qrow and the rest would take a good-natured 'fuck off'. "So, what are you doing here – aside from searching for Red and Little Red, of course?"

"You have my niece," was all the Hunter said, jerking his head toward Ruby.

Fuuuuuuuck. Okay, so that got even more personal. The blonde being her sister, he could handle – not understand how they could be so different yet sisters, but he could handle such a situation. But Qrow freaking Branwen being Little Red's uncle? That was bad. That was freaking bad. That was-

"Perfect!"

No, not perfect. He turned to glare at Torchwick for having interrupted his train of thought, but the sheer relief on his face confused him long enough for the thief to continue.

"I mean, you want Little Red back, that's perfect! That's exactly what we were gonna do, so you take her, take Red too, and go back home! You're happy, we're happy, we get rid of that ridiculously naive child and her almost as ridiculously naive mother, and everyone goes on with their _separate_ , _distant_ lives!" The criminal spread his arms as if to hug the whole world. "See? Problem's solved, we can all go. Because, fair warning, our last companion is probably on his way here, and he's gonna be _pissed_ when he arrives. And if he gets pissed, I'm not the one picking up what's left of Blondie and Whitey over there."

"I am W-"

"An absolute moron who can't get when it's time to shut up, sit tight, and let the grown-ups talk," snarked Qrow, sending her a scathing glare that, at least, actually silenced her. Then the Hunter turned back to Torchwick, though still keeping Taurus in his sight – smart move, Mercury had to give him that, he wasn't stupid. "You're just going to give her up after going through all that trouble? After kidnapping her, dragging her away, and hiding all the while?"

"Okay, three things. One, we weren't even hiding, you were just slow at finding us. Second, from what I've been told, Little Red over there wasn't included in the plan initially, and got it in her head that she _had_ to come with us. And three," Mercury held up three fingers. "Jaune's the one who convinced Roman to take her with us. End of the story."

"It's true, Uncle Qrow." Ugh, the silver-haired assassin wanted to scoff or tear his hair out in frustration. Why was that brat talking?! If she wasn't ready to fight, then she should've kept out of the conversation just as well! "We found Mom. They helped me. I know they're not good people but they didn't do anything wrong to me…"

"That's not Mom, Ruby, Mom is dead! That's-"

Torchwick apparently decided he wasn't in the mood for listening to children's arguments. "Cut it out, Blondie, you're assuming stuff you don't know. I didn't get smacked around by a giant Deathstalker for an impostor. That's the real deal – unless she's been faking her identity for a decade or so, since before Jaune Marked her with his Semblance."

"Marked?" Qrow inhaled sharply. "What does that mean?"

"It means Jaune's Aura protects her for as long as it can," Ruby explained quickly. "He saved her! She was being kept prisoner and-"

"Whoa whoa whoa, let's cut down some details, a story can't be spoiled like that!" Torchwick interrupted her, chuckling lightly. Mercury knew that chuckle, and it wasn't a mirthful one, but a warning. He snorted. If the thief could manage to get through Ruby's bone head and make her understand she needed to _shut up_ , he'd bow to him.

No, he wouldn't, but that was beside the point.

"How can we be sure you aren't lying?" asked Qrow, and Mercury wanted to applaud him. Finally someone who asked the right question! "How do we know she's really Summer?"

Torchwick shrugged. "Ask her some questions."

Duh. He wanted to scoff. Seriously, if he doubted their sincerity, why ask them for confirmation?

The man took a deep breath -useless dramatics, in Mercury's humble opinion- before turning to look at the woman with the white cloak. "Okay, if you're really Summer, tell me something only Summer could know."

Though, now that Mercury thought of it, taking into consideration Summer's long time in imprisonment, maybe making her recall so long-gone times wasn't the best way to prove them right.

"During our first day in Beacon, Tai convinced you that the skirt was part of the Beacon uniform, and you strode into the classroom without a care in the world," reminisced the woman, easily enough, if he might add. Maybe it was a memory she had really cherished. "During our third year, you made a business out of selling Raven's underwear, but all those were just second-hand panties and bras you bought in a charity shop, and they never found out. And finally, the day Ruby was born, when my waters broke, you kept running around like a headless chicken alongside Tai, and Yang was laughing like crazy."

All in all, Mercury decided, it was a pretty good story, whether it was true or not. It wasn't too detailed, but that was to be expected given how much time had passed, and how it had passed, but more importantly it wasn't too vague, still keeping a realistic feel to it.

Given by how the man began shaking, it was realistic enough.

"S-Summer?" Qrow croaked out, all of his previous confidence gone.

"Q-Qrow? Are you s-sure that's her?" the blonde girl stuttered. And again Mercury wanted to scoff. How many times did they have to go for the classic cliché? Why could no one accept someone they had thought dead for basically a decade hadn't actually died? That instead she'd been prisoner for years, and that the people they wanted to fight had actually been the ones who had saved her? Why couldn't people just accept their world being turned upside down and colour-inverted?

He'd taken worse in stride.

He'd seen the fucking _Queen of the Grimm_.

Until he saw one of the old Gods in that stupid legend about the Brothers, he could consider himself unimpressed forevermore… or well, until Grimm boy decided another little transformation was in order.

Wait a second…

Oh fuck. Fuck Fuck Fuck, with capital Fs.

What if Jaune _actually_ transformed on a later date? He wasn't afraid to admit that thing scared the hell out of him. Power-wise, he rationally knew he could take it down – he was faster and, though not stronger than it, he was still pretty strong. He could wear it down and take it out.

The problem was that both times he'd seen it, he'd been way too terrified to do that.

So what would happen if he were to transform again, and they didn't have their little flashbanger of theirs with them? Ruby was the only one who could stop him – while also knocking herself out, but that was beside the point. The point was that they'd remain with a freaking monster without control way too near them for his liking – and anywhere within two miles was to be considered near, in his humble opinion.

He really hated to be the killjoy and break up such a touchingly awkward situation. After all, maybe if he were to give them a few more hours, Qrow or Blondie or either Red would finally move and start a normal family meeting instead of staring at each other wordlessly. And they were lucky the police nor Jaune had yet arrived! Had they been there, it would've been a hell of a lot harder to handle it.

Now, the only thing they needed to do was to take away Ruby after telling them they'd give her back, or dumping Blondie, basically the only thing keeping them on the same 'quest' instead of scattering each on their own. It was going to be a real piece of cake, wouldn't it?

Mercury fucking loved his life. When his life wasn't too busy hating and shitting all over him just for the fun of it, that is. And unfortunately, those rare moments of peace seemed to have all expired, because the only good side Mercury could see, was that he'd made a good internal laugh about the scene when he'd first arrived.

The rest had been prime-quality bullshit. And he was really tired of having to swim in bullshit. He'd much rather leave it to someone else, someone who wasn't risking everything at every word.

Alas, everyone else seemed to be either too busy with the little family not-moment, or too stupid to think about it, so as usual he had to be the one swimming in the shit and getting everyone out. While he was an expert in the former, he wasn't sure he was really the most qualified one to save everyone from the waterfall of shit that was about to go down.

Unfortunately, there was no other choice.

"Uhh… yeah, change of plan, you can keep Red, but Little Red kind of has to stick with us. So yeah, we're taking her with us."

Yes, he regretted it.

 ** _This was so fun to write, which is ironic considering what's going on. Jaune is still not here, for the moment, and the police isn't gonna arrive - I'll tell you since you wouldn't know otherwise: Qrow called the police while he was running there, to tell them he had it under control and all that bullshit. Since he's a professional and famous Hunter, they did as he told them. Why? Because Yang and Weiss are currently criminals, being caught by the police would get SO messy, and as I wrote he's hoping to get their punishment lessened a bit. In canon, Yang DID get away scot-free, probably because of Oz, Tai and Qrow._**

 ** _Also, no one pointed it out, but it's true that they can't exactly give up Ruby like that. They don't know it's the eyes, so they aren't keeping Summer too. But that's gonna happen in the next chapter._**

 ** _The more I write Mercury, the more I love writing him. Same goes for Torchwick and, though on a smaller scale, for Taurus. I like writing Qrow though it's hard to maintain a professional yet laid-back Hunter personality, so I have to focus a lot more. Oh, and Neo? She's the best. I love writing her dialogues. XD_**

 ** _Nothing else to say except I know you'll hate me for ANOTHER cliffhanger. What can I do? Cliffhangers keep the attention of the readers, and these chapters need to be linked together as they are very important - we'll get a filler or slice of life chapter soon enough, after this mess settles._**

 ** _Until next time,_**

 ** _Khor Evik Vlakhavlakh_**


	22. Making It Worse

**_Whew, this was hard to write. Not because it was difficult, but because I wrote it all in a day, and it's almost 6k words - which is basically the length of my oneshots. My hands are sore. But! I got this out one day after DR, so that's a plus! Yes, it's been 42 since my last DS update, but here it is!_**

Roman Torchwick sometimes swore, but he rarely meant it. After all the shit he'd been through, few things could actually make him lose his cool enough to swear. All in all, he'd been on the verge of swearing when he and the assassin had first arrived in the war zone, but he had then calmed down enough to come up with an idea that, in all modesty, was absolute genius. No, really, while he'd had better ideas, he took pride in that particular one as it was the best solution to their problem, while at the same time it settled the fight before it even got serious – and besides, two brats and a veteran Hunter against two Hunters and two professional assassins sounded like a very unfair fight. While he usually liked having the odds in his favour, that was just plain pathetic.

They'd decided to send Red and Little Red back home, no? Then he didn't see why they couldn't send them home with their family. Heck, with all the trouble they had just caused, and the damage to the restaurant -which hurt him more than he'd admit, because the food was actually pretty good-, their rescue mission for Little Red was definitely not some low-rank situation. Some higher-ups had to have given those three enough clearance to get away with such raw destruction, and when higher-ups got involved, things always got complicated.

He didn't want complicated. His new 'comrades' were complicated enough. A Faunus emo with some serious anger problems and grudges against humanity as a whole, a merciless and ruthless assassin who placed his own entertainment above people's lives, and a teenager who was mentally older than any of them and was in symbiosis or something with the essence of humanity's bane. To the mix he and Neo had to be added, both ruthless and immoral enough by themselves, though if he had to be honest, he was the normal one out in their group.

Getting rid of Little Red and Red would probably worsen the group's interactions since Little Red seemed to be the only normal person in the group with him coming close to being normal, but not close enough. True, it was Grimm Boy who held their goals together, but he wasn't that much of a good conversationalist nor did he really lift the others' spirits like Little Red's hilariously stupid naivety did.

However, shoving them with the three Hunters -more like two brats and a Hunter slash part time babysitter- and seeing them off to home was the perfect plan. None of them would miss those two anyway… well, maybe Grimm Boy but he wasn't there at the moment. And they didn't need them. They were all already good fighters, and that's all the two could've ever provided. Plus the woman was traumatized, come on, who ever expected a traumatized former tortured prisoner to be in fighting shape anytime soon?

He studied the faces of the fighters. Bullman was sneering at Whitey, but otherwise he just looked spiteful, which he'd learned soon enough was his default facial expression. Branwen seemed still shocked by discovering Red was indeed Red, but he was getting his shit together quite fast. The two brats both looked angry, with Blondie looking also shell-shocked. Neo looked like she was having fun, but that was normal. He dreaded the day Neo didn't smile during a fight. Red and Little Red were worriedly looking from a fighter to the other. And finally, the silver-haired assassin seemed to be cursing under his breath before straightening as if he had to say something.

Oh well, it wasn't like insulting those three would really change the deal.

"Uhh… yeah, change of plan, you can keep Red, but Little Red kind of has to stick with us. So yeah, we're taking her with us."

And the need to swear was back tenfold.

Everyone was shocked by the statement, and that was all the time he needed to intervene. He swiftly kicked Mercury's shin, cursing silently when he was reminded his legs were made of metal, before slapping a hand over the assassin's mouth and throwing his fakest grin ever to the others. "He's drunk a few too many bottles I fear, he doesn't speak for all of us… hell, he can barely speak for himself!" he explained with fake cheer before hissing to Mercury. "What the hell do you think you're doing?! I had just gotten us out of here!"

"What do you mean, you take her with you?!" Of course Blondie had to be the one to explode at the comment, quite literally as fire burst around her.

"He doesn't know what he's saying," Torchwick reassured her before glaring at Mercury, who shrugged off his hand.

"I do know," the assassin growled under his breath. "I know that we _have_ to keep her, unless you want to end up becoming food the next time Grimm Boy gets ticked off."

Oh.

Ohhh.

Ohhhhhhh… damn.

Colour draining from his face, Torchwick let go of the assassin and tried to regain his composure – but how could he? He'd hoped to get out of there without a fight, and also without being chased any longer, but if he put it like that, what could he do? There were two options.

He gave up Little Red and became food for Grimm… and that a definitely _hell no_ in his books. Or, taking Little Red with them and fleeing like the wind, like they had the Queen of the Grimm at their heels – not true though with Jaune with them, it would be very ironic. After all, Grimm-human hybrids only existed in legends… like the legend of Salem.

He almost chuckled. Maybe Jaune would become the next Salem in Remnant's mythology. If he did, then Torchwick would be remembered forever too – too good of an opportunity to pass up. They just needed to survive that mess.

He stepped away from the assassin, conceding he had a point. "Okay, why don't we discuss this? If it makes you feel better, you can put yourself between us and Red and Red, okay? We just have to talk about this a little bit, better not to make rushed decisions, right?"

"Rushed decisions my ass I'm gonna-" began Blondie, looking like she wouldn't give up on fighting them so easily. Honestly, even if they were to give up Red and Little Red, Blondie would probably try to find and fight them for revenge for having 'kidnapped' her sister and mother – he still didn't see the resemblance.

Her rant was stopped when the Hunter crossed the distance between them and slapped her.

The following silence was so deafening Torchwick himself was surprised by it. Had the little loud bitch never received a slap in her entire life? That was bad, really bad. She seriously needed it. Apparently, her family never used the harsh but tried-and-true methods for teaching her manners. Totally not like his own parents, may they burn in whatever shithole in Hell they were housed in the Afterlife, who never missed the chance to teach him like that.

"You… you slapped me."

Dun dun duuun! Revelation of the century! Seriously, that girl needed to be taught some of the ways of the world.

"I did, because you are in a situation you haven't trained for, and you are in the worst state of mind you could ever be in such a situation," the Hunter rebutted tensely. Torchwick wasn't sure if he was tense because he was about to snap at her, or if he was tense because of the fight. "So, for once in your life, Yang, _shut the fuck up and obey!_ "

His words shocked her even further, alongside Torchwick, though for different reasons.

That girl… no, that wasn't a girl, that young woman… had _never_ been even _told off_?! She'd never been told to shut up and do as she was said?! She was never taught when it was best to just stay silent?!

He wasn't sure whether he should laugh at how fucking pathetic the modern kids and parents were, and being angry at them for having it so easy. He looked her over, and while she did look a little worse for wear, she was still basically a supermodel – and he wasn't talking about looks. Fashion choice, make-up, haircare, hygiene to a level that was simply ridiculous for someone who was supposed to get down in the dirt to fight Grimm, a cocksure and overly arrogant behaviour… yes, she had it all. Even her weapon, uselessly large on the wrists and stupidly not covering her fingers, was all for 'coolness factor'.

His weapon was nice on the eye, sure, but it was useful and practical. Hookwire, handcannon slash flare launcher, and combat cane all in one compact package. Neo's parasol was just as practical despite being more exotic and aesthetically pleasing. Taurus's katana and sheathe were the same – sword and gun in separate hands instead of just one single weapon, but still useful. Black's weapons were even simpler. Jaune's were his own hands and, sometimes, a simple arming sword. Older Red's weapons were two solid blades with two simple scabbards.

Blondie's gauntlets were more like bracers, and from what Little Red had told them about this 'Ember Celica', it was useless for them to turn into bracelets, unless one counted sheer aesthetics.

Of course the stupidest weapon of them all was Little Red's own oversized farming tool, but that was something else.

That girl wasn't a real fighter, she only fought for fun and entertainment, whether it was her own or the spectators' once she started fighting in tournaments. Dressed like a hot chick going on a summer vacation, with a personality to match, and stupid weapons meant more for looks than anything else. She was a fucking stain on the word fighter. She'd never fought a _real_ battle before.

The thief felt anger bubbling up as the brat and the Hunter continued to argue. That stupid bitch would probably never know how easy she had it. She condemned him for his crimes and yet she was so blinded by her own self-centredness and arrogance to be unable to see what she had done herself. She had never known what it meant to _struggle_. Taking care of a baby Little Red because her father went into a fucking depression instead of taking care of his two daughters? HA!

At least he'd still fucking _had_ a family! If he'd been so weak as to not see that, well Torchwick wasn't gonna feel pity for his old classmate. He'd always known Tai was psychologically too weak to be a Hunter.

His daughter may've been ignored and forced to take care for her sister, but she still had her uncle and the family friends. He quite distinctly remembered discreetly donating a few thousands Lien to Tai's bank account himself.

Oh, how he regretted it now. That little bitch didn't deserve a single Lien.

The anger was growing, hotter and wilder. That girl didn't know half of how cruel the world could be. Of how much pleasure Life took in stripping people of _everything_ and leaving them to crawl at the bottom of the abyss. Many never made it back up again. Some didn't even try, like that bitch's father. Some climbed out and forged a new life from the ashes of their past one.

He'd been one of those people, and now that girl was spitting on every struggle, every hardship, _everything_ he'd ever suffered, just because she couldn't see just how easy Life had gone on her. She was like a child complaining about a stubbed toe to a war veteran. He couldn't stand it, he wished Jaune was there just so he could show her what a _real_ battle was, it was just so _infuriating_.

A fucking glass house, that's what she was living in.

Oh, how he wished he could shatter that house and drag her out in the _real_ , _cruel_ world she so wanted to protect her sister from. How he wanted to show her the horrors he'd had to witness himself, unable to turn away until the images burned themselves into his memory. How he wanted to make her suffer without ever touching her, how he wanted to let Life have its way with her. How he wanted to show her how appealing death was at times.

How he wanted to force her to see what a bowler hat would forever make him remember.

/-/

Arthur Watts was a patient man, but even he would admit that today was a glorious day he'd been looking forward to for a while, as today was the day he got rid of that moronic pyromaniac. Not forever, unfortunately, but long enough for him to get a respite. Thanks to him, physical rehabilitation had taken next to nothing, as the new arm he'd made for her for the absolute best of the best. He'd been tempted to add an auto-detonate feature, but in the end he decided against it. Salem would kill him if she were to find out.

"Are we there yet?" Cinder grumbled from the passenger seat.

He didn't take his eyes off the road as he replied. "Almost. I told you five minutes three minutes ago, do your math and you'll find out there are still two minutes left."

She scoffed. "Whatever."

He rolled his eyes. So much arrogance, so much boorishness. He could understand boasting over power one actually had, but Cinder was the epitome of a bully full of hot air. She pretended to have a power she didn't possess, and treated everyone like dirt. He could see how Salem thought her easily manipulated, and she was, but her arrogance often grated on his nerves. Most people worked hard to get the power or knowledge they had. She had just been handed some Grimm to steal the power, letting her underlings do all the work instead and threatening everyone to get them to do her bidding. It was no surprise her plan failed so spectacularly. If anything, she'd lasted more than he'd thought.

"Are these new servants of yours really worth it?" she asked again, stupidly proud even with an arm _he_ had made and burn scars all over her body.

He suppressed the need to roll his eyes again. "Correct me if I'm wrong, and I'm not, but didn't two of your former underlings betray you? Oh, and the third died within two months of employment. Such _great_ 'servants' they were," he scoffed at her, knowingly making her angry. That was a favourite hobby of his, and he excelled at it – not like it was all that hard to make Cinder see red. "These will be worth your time."

She scoffed right back at him and picked up her Scroll. "We shall see."

Oh, for the love of- She was never happy with what she had, wasn't she?! "I have personally picked them out, they _are_ good."

"The fact you picked them is what makes me doubt it," she retorted with venom.

That woman really never knew when she just had to accept she wasn't the one with a brain in that car, didn't she? "Cinder, put aside your hatred for me for a moment. Salem chose me for a reason that wasn't muscles or power, but wits – something you acutely lack. They'll do just fine for what you want to do."

"I hope they will – because we cannot miss the arrival of the transfer students," she snapped again. "Are we there yet?"

Arthur wanted to shut his eyes in frustration, but he knew better than to close his eyes while driving, even when there were supposedly no other cars around. He steered the wheel and drove into a parking lot. "Yes, we are there. That building is the gym we're meeting them at. Our cover is pretty simple – we're hiring Hunters but we cannot afford licensed ones, so we take trainees as work experience for them. People do that all the time."

"Whatever," she huffed, opening the door and climbing out of the car. "Hurry up."

He unbuckled himself and exited the car without bothering to lock it. Even if it were to be stolen, it wasn't his anyway. He sped up a little to catch up with the pyromaniac and stopped her just shy of entering the gym. "How's your arm?"

"Fine," she growled, scowling at him.

"I meant the fake skin," he sighed. Of course the arm was fine, Arthur Watts didn't do _not fine_. "Does it still cover it all? Is it itchy? Can you move it accurately?"

She huffed and rolled her eyes. "Yes, it's _fine_! Can we go now?"

He shrugged and allowed her to open the door. Usually, he'd be a gentleman and open it for her, but Cinder wasn't a lady so it didn't matter. The two of them closed the door behind them and headed for the gym proved, ignoring the changing rooms. No sound came from within, so Watts guessed the new recruits weren't training or working out to pass the time. Good, it meant they could stay put.

He opened the door with a grin and ushered Cinder inside.

There were three people waiting for them, all looking in their very late teens or early twenties.

He gestured for the first to step forwards so he could introduce them one at a time. "Sherry N. Ingham. Nineteen. Mercenary specialized in direct confrontations and skirmishes. Aura capacity, A. His Semblance allows him to reduce his strength, speed or endurance by up to eighty percent, and increase the other two by the same percentage, but has a high Aura maintenance cost. His weapons are Outlast, a reinforced anti-riot shield, Outspeed, a 44 calibre automatic rifle, and Outmatch, an Earth Dust infused greatsword."

The man, Sherry Ingham, was dressed in his combat armour, evidently. Grey gauntlets covered his hands and his forearms up to the elbow. His upper arms were partially covered by the steel shoulderguards, and a heavy-looking, solid chestplate protected his torso. His legs were just as armoured, with graves and jambs made of steel and brown leather boots. A plain-looking brown-hilted greatsword hung on his back alongside the black calibre 44. He was holding the grey shield with one hand and a steel helmet not dissimilar from an anti-riot policeman's. Looks-wise, he didn't seem much. He had a nose a tad too small and his red hair were cut a bit too short, alongside the fuzzy red hairs on his chin. His eyes were cold brown – and that was the only trait she could appreciate. Otherwise, he didn't look like a good potential recruit.

But maybe that was the point.

He stepped back when the second one took his place. "Lucy Borgée. Nineteen. Assassin specialized in poisons and stealth. Aura capacity, B+. Her Semblance allows her to become undetectable for short periods of time, be it sight, hearing, smell or radars. Despite mainly using poisons to get the job done, she has two modified Vacuan Hawkeyes, Cyanide and Arsenic, calibre 27 with blades over the barrels."

The woman was half a head taller than the man, standing at over six feet seven, but had no armour whatsoever. In fact, she barely looked like a Huntress. She wore comfortable dark brown pants and a dark green shirt under a dark brown jacket. Cinder noted with a little bit of envy that her chest seemed to be a size or two larger than hers, and she was no plank. She wore her dirty blonde hair in a bob-cut, but not even a strand fell over her smoky green eyes. Two guns rested in their holsters at her sides, hanging from a brown fake leather belt, but other than that, she looked like someone Cinder would forget the moment she left her sight.

Finally, Watts introduced the last potential recruit. "Schwarz Freitag. Twenty. A serial killer I found in the more miserable parts of Atlas. Sane, though a bit sadist. Aura capacity, C. His Semblance is Illusions, similar to the late Emerald Sustrai's own Semblance. However, he can affect any number of people, but his illusions can only affect sight and hearing. They have no smell, no temperature, no substance. His weapons are Folter, a Lightning Dust shortsword, and Schmerzen, a modified Desert Eagle that can shoot normal or Dust rounds."

The last man looked the least dangerous of them all. He had a duffel bag with him, where she imagined his weapons were hidden, slung over his shoulder. In terms of clothing, he was pathetically normal as well. Semi-new light blue jeans, black tennis shoes, and a grey t-shirt under an old blue jumper. As opposite to the first, he actually let his beard and hair grow out a little, resulting in the lower part of his face being partially hidden by the black fuzz. His hair fell on his eyes, and he seemed to have a nervous tic of shaking his head to clear his sight. His eyes weren't any less boringly normal, the colour of murky waters during a mudslide.

She glanced at Watts. "These are your candidates?" she asked sceptically.

He huffed. "Of course they are, and they are the best for this kind of job. Immoral, and in just for the pay. They have no loyalty if not to themselves and to the money – and with our boss, money isn't a problem."

"Do they know about…" Cinder trailed off, glancing at the three, who were chatting among themselves now, looking totally not dangerous – not even the armoured one.

"No. I feel like it was a mistake for you to introduce your underlings to our boss. Terrified people make for awful servants," he waved aside her argument, easing her worries and angering her at the same time. "They don't who is employing them as long as they get paid, but I think our boss might scare them a bit."

"And aren't you scaring them now?" huffed the pyromaniac, turning to look at the three, but they were apparently ignoring the two. "They can hear us."

"Of course they can, but unless they _meet_ our boss, which is impossible unless our boss wants to, they'll be fine with not knowing," Watts smirked victoriously. "No matter what they hear about it."

"Are you calling our boss an 'it'?" Cinder gave him a 'do you have a death wish?' glare.

"Can you actually claim we are employed by a 'she'?" he countered easily. Salem may've been human once, and may've looked partially human, but she was Grimm, and Grimm was referred to as an it.

Also, he knew it would've irritated Cinder further. That was the only reason he'd ever dared to speak of Salem as an 'it'.

"She's a woman," Cinder retorted angrily. Watts raised an eyebrow. "A highly unusual woman, but a woman nonetheless. You shouldn't disrespect her like that."

Watts smiled unpleasantly at her. "Last I checked, I wasn't the one who had failed so spectacularly to need immediate intervention and help from the very one she hated the most." His grin grew alongside her anger. "You lost your thief, got blown up, lost your illusionist and then both your assassins, lost your arm, and lost your position. You'll have to crawl out of the hole you dug yourself into, and believe me, I'll be there to laugh at you at every step."

/-/

 _"I told you we should've taken better precautions, Ozpin. I told you, and now our enemies have the silver-eyed girl, two of your best students will be expelled and blacklisted, and that's without counting the scandal that'll take place once the media hear about what happened, and our best field agent is on a personal mission instead of keeping an eye on her movements. I think it's time we try my methods instead."_

"You know I cannot allow that, old friend, this peace won't last if an Atlasian military fleet of warships were to start crowding Vale's skies."

 _"They would feel safe, Ozpin."_

"No, they would wonder what kind of threat we are preparing to fight. The Vytal Festival will mark the highest concentration of Hunters there's been ever since the last Festival. Trainees and professionals from all over the world will be mixed with the civilians, so if people see we _also_ need an entire army, they would start to wonder _what_ exactly could threaten us even with all the Hunters around. It'd cause mass panic, and fear-"

 _"-would bring the Grimm. Yes, I know Ozpin, you've told me a thousand times already. But it doesn't matter what they think, because they'd be right. We don't know what we're up against, and from the looks of it our enemies want to strike us during the Festival. If they are bold enough to do that, it means they have more power than we thought. More than we feared. We should prepare ourselves while we still have time."_

"We _cannot_ prepare any better than this, James, you should know that. Bringing your army here would only make Atlas an easy target – and if Atlas falls, Remnant will panic."

 _"Atlas won't fall, Ozpin. But if you think this is being prepared for war… why are you using so many of your resources to find that girl? Our enemies know about the Silver Eyes, Ozpin, she's dead by now. We should hope for her to be dead. Even if she's still alive, she'll be broken or manipulated. It's a pointless mission."_

"Maybe it is, but we have to try. She's the only one we have. We cannot afford to lose her." Ozpin sighed wearily. "And as cruel and heartless as this may sound, even broken she can still be of use. She can still have children to continue her line even if she cannot fight any longer."

 _"…Ozpin, that's inhuman."_

"So is uprooting a girl's soul with a machine just to prevent her murderer from getting her powers, James," he bit back with a sudden bout of anger. "This is what we must do to protect Remnant. If becoming a monster is what it takes to keep the other monsters at bay, then I'll do it."

 _"So it's okay to worry about a girl kept in the foundations of the most secure place on Remnant being murdered but it's not okay to take measures to keep said murderer away?"_ Frustration was evident in the General's voice. _"When I joined the Inner Circle, you promised me we were doing something, we were saving people. All I see is a bunch of cowards hiding behind empty reassurances and praying for nothing to go wrong. We cannot wait for them to attack and sink the Kingdom in fear, we must stop them first. It's like a macro-scale of a Grimm incursion in a village. If you truly want to save the village, you don't wait until the Grimm have breached the walls to start preparing."_

"This is more delicate than a simple Grimm incursion, James, we're talking about the fate of Remnant!"

 _"All the more reasons to take all the precautions we can!"_ The man gave a long sigh that turned to static through the call. _"I… I'm sorry Oz. I cannot just do nothing. I've contacted the Council. My army will supervise the Vytal Festival."_

Ozpin's eyes widened in shock, then narrowed dangerously. "You went behind my back." It was a statement, not a question.

 _"If it's the only way I can do something because you're too scared of how the people would react, then yes, I went behind your back and I do not regret it. The people could surprise you, if you just let them. You are sure they would panic, but you underestimate people. It's time you trust others on what they do, and not the other way around."_

"James-"

 _"I'll see you at the Vytal Festival. Goodbye."_

 _Beeep._

The Headmaster sighed and lowered the Scroll. First Qrow, then Ironwood. Two of his closer agents distanced themselves from him. He couldn't rely on them any longer, for the time being. With Qrow being on a mission that seemed impossible just like Ironwood thought, and the General not following his orders any more, his plans were crumbling around him like a drying sandcastle.

He set the Scroll down and stood, turning to face the wall-to-wall window behind his desk. Vale looked so peaceful at the moment, unaware of the war going on in the shadows. In a few days, all traces of peace would be gone. Atlas's army would come and the citizens would realize the war was closer than they'd thought.

He sighed. Keeping them in the dark made it easier for him to enact his plans of defence. No one questioned search and destroy missions in the Grimmlands as they thought it was just to keep the Grimm population down. If they were to know a war was imminent, they'd deny him the use of the Kingdom's Hunters as they'd hire them to prepare for a second Great War.

That would be a disaster.

And Ironwood was doing a good job at meeting it head on.

/-/

Qrow Branwen was a man who could take much in stride, but he was finding himself reaching his limit.

The mission was going poorly, but at least it wasn't a mess. No news was bad news, but even bad news were better than the mess he'd found himself into. True, they had found Ruby, but they were outnumbered and probably outmatched, confused more than ever, and their opponents seemed just as confused as they were. Not a good mix.

In the middle of it all, the Schnee brat had at least the wits to shut up and stay put, but his niece was too much of a hothead to follow her example. She burst out twice before, and twice she'd been silenced. He hadn't wanted to actually hurt her, but it was the only way he could get her to actually shut up. The way the grey-haired boy had said it was suspicious – especially since they seemed all for letting Ruby go just a few seconds before.

And Torchwick seemed to have picked up on the gravity of the situation if he was asking for an impromptu 'team meeting'.

The bull Faunus and the midget threw them glares as they went to their allies, and once again Qrow had to stop Yang from trying to charge at Ruby and run away with the girl. That would only result in her death. She was young and naive, she just couldn't understand those people cared more about dirtying their clothes than about her life. She couldn't get the point: she'd be killed in a heartbeat if she were to piss them off even more than they already were.

As the four criminals -and he was sure he could call all of them criminals- began to mutter among themselves with various levels of anger and frustration clear on their faces, Qrow turned to his niece. "Ruby, are you okay?"

"I've been trying to tell you I'm fine since the start!" she snapped, pulling at her hair in frustration. "Why do you never listen?! I said I was fine in the letter I wrote! I told you I was fine not three minutes ago! Yang saw I was fine at that club! All of this could've been avoided if only you'd just listened to me!"

"I know, and I'm sorry kiddo, but your letter made everyone panic, even more so when we couldn't find you," he apologized, feeling horrible for having to lie. True, everyone _had_ panicked, but part of the reason she'd been so important were her silver eyes. "It's just… one can never be too sure, and when _I_ , a professional Hunter and tracker, couldn't find you… it was obvious you were with someone who knew how to hide, and that didn't bode well. I'm sorry we didn't believe you, but soon you'll be home and then we can talk about it, and we can thank whoever helped you with this."

"Uh, right, 'bout that…" Qrow shut his eyes in frustration and turned to glare at the silver-haired boy. "We have kind of decided that we need her to come with us. You can take her mother home though."

Out of the corner of his eyes, he saw Yang's hands clench into fists, and spoke before she could. "Why's that?"

"Well, you see," Torchwick took over, a nervous undertone clear in his voice. "This isn't the whole group. There's someone else, who is normally a very calm person, but when he gets angry, Little Red over there is the only thing that can keep him from tearing us to pieces. Literally."

Qrow glanced at Ruby in shock. "What?!"

"That's the short story, and believe me you don't wanna hear the long story," the criminal mastermind continued hurriedly. "Now, take Red over there and go, because the guy I mentioned is probably on his way here, and if he sees you… he's not gonna like it. At all."

"Never heard truer words, Roman," an unknown voice spoke up from behind the criminal. Qrow turned in shock. He thought he'd told the police to evacuate the area! And yet there he was, a teenage boy with hair as long as Yang's, dressed with grey pants and shirt that seemed to have seen much better days, standing just beside a corner of the wall with his arms crossed, a scowl on his face and his eyes closed.

Qrow glanced at the group. Torchwick looked terrified, and the midget seemed more nervous now than when she was about to fight with the odds against her before Torchwick and the silver-haired boy arrived. Speaking of said boy, he had his hands clenched, whether out of fear or because he was tense, the Hunter didn't know. Even the Faunus, who seemed the least affected, was clutching his swords so hard his knuckles were white.

Qrow turned to stare at the boy, whose voice turned into a growl at the end of the sentence. His already fair skin blanched alongside his hair, and when he uncrossed his arms, the Hunter could see the sharp claws tipping each finger. But the greatest shock came when the boy eventually opened his eyes to glare straight at them.

"You're right, I don't like this. Not. One. Bit."

They were the eyes of a Grimm.

 ** _Great way to solve a cliffhanger, huh? Sorry, I know I basically just worsened the whole, but we all knew Jaune was gonna get involved, and I had to set it up._**

 ** _Anyway, I know people are jarred by having to visualize Jaune with long hair, but there's a reason why he kept it long - which is not that he couldn't cut it. For you who know of How To Train Your Dragon 2, it's similar to why Hiccup keeps the tresses in his hair. Also, if it helps you imagining it, think of hair as long and flat as Velvet's (Yang's hair is stupidly voluminous) and as wild as Ren's, but with Jaune's hair colour._**

 ** _And finally we get more Cinder and Ozpin! It's been six chapters since Cinder was last mentioned, just slightly less for Ozzy. Cinder learns that to infiltrate the most secure place on Remnant she needs some professionals who don't scream 'edgelord' (M), 'totally not happy to be friends' (E) or 'plain psychopath' (N) in her team. Sherry and Lucy are both based off historical or legendary/folklore characters. Schwarz Freitag means 'Black Friday' in German, and no it's the sale one. Calling a day 'black' was a way to point out it was a tragedy/catastrophe._**

 ** _Points to who guess who Sherry N. Ingham and Lucy Borgée are!_**

 ** _And to end with a bang, the gang got in even greater trouble! Who's head will be chomped off first? Find out in the next episode of A Darker Shade of Gold!_**

 ** _Until next time,_**

 ** _Khor Evik Vlakhavlakh_**

 ** _PS: Demonic Redemption's latest chapter only got 2 reviews so far. Come on guys, you can do better. Reviews are a writer's life blood. I know a couple of users whose reviews I'm looking forwards... let's see if they come to write something on this._**


	23. The Jaws of Karma

**_Hello faithful readers! Despite what I initially thought, I managed to make this an all-fighting chapter. The climax of the conversation you've all been waiting for is finally here!_**

Yang Xiao Long never knew true fear.

How could she? For someone to be afraid, one of four prerequisites had to be fulfilled. One, for them to be far weaker than whatever was scaring them and for that thing to be hostile, and with Yang's skill level and her confidence almost nothing fazed her. Two, confusion. People were scared of what they didn't understand for obvious survival instinct. As bad as that sounded, Yang didn't make it to the top million in terms of survival instincts. Three, horror. Maybe not the monsters themselves, but how they looked or what they did, could scare people just because of what they looked like. Yang fought soulless monsters as entertainment. Four, a Semblance or some other powers like that.

The current case was a mix of _all_ those prerequisites.

She'd already faced him in what she thought was his Semblance-related 'Grimm form'. White hair, white skin, red eyes and claws tipping each finger. He was also freaking strong and could tank dozens of her hits and stand up again – something almost no one had ever done before with the exception of her father.

That was _nothing_ compared to what she was seeing.

Rows of spikes grew on his forearms like jagged blades, and each finger turned into a claw as long as a shortsword. The boy's skin blackened as he heightened, and soon blade-like ribs tore through the flesh. On his back, spikes like a giant porcupine jutted out in small burst of black gore that disappeared before it hit the ground. The head, once human, lengthened into a horned wolf's head, its jaws filled with two rows of deadly fangs. If Yang were to describe it, she'd say it looked like a Beowolf with longer claws, horns, bone ribs, and a back full of bone protrusions. Shoulderplates made of bone grew from the sides of its neck, and the ribs seemed to unite into a segmented chestplate. The knees were topped with spikes as well, and the feet were clawed like a Beowolf's, even though the monster looked way more dangerous than a Beowolf. Red veins and cracks spread over the mask, shoulderpads and chestplate, completing the look and worrying her further – usually only strong Grimm had red cracks on the armour. Weaker ones like Beowolves, Ursai and Creeps only had red in their eyes. Deathstalkers, Nevermores, Beringels and King Tajitsus had red cracks, that she knew of, and those were definitely stronger than the formers.

Against the Grimm-like person she had fought at Junior's, she had been inflicted a humiliating and crushing defeat.

This adversary looked _much_ stronger.

The torn remains of the boy's clothes fell from the monster's skin, and then that criminal bastard seemed to grin.

"Ladies and gentleman… me… let me introduce to you…" To his credit, he only took a second to come up with a name. "Carnifex!" His grin widened as his eyes landed on her. "…'the executioner'."

The Grimm's red eyes focused on her and it roared so loud she felt her ears ring.

A scythe slamming into its mouth made it stop, much to Yang's relief. Qrow Branwen skidded to a stop in front of his niece before throwing her his Scroll. "Yang, first number, the police, evacuate!" he yelled before he shot off again to attack the monster.

Yang considered her options. Either she fought with Qrow against that thing, or she told the police to evacuate… which had probably already been done, since there was no one around.

She hardened her resolve. She was a Huntress. Her job was to fight Grimm.

It took her a titanic effort, but she managed to move her legs. Now that the Grimm's overwhelming presence wasn't focused on her, she didn't feel her initial mindless terror any more. Despite her immense respect for Qrow's strength and skill, she wasn't sure he could handle that… that _thing_. It was like nothing she'd ever seen. It probably had some hidden tricks up its sleeve.

She threw the Scroll aside and shot the monster with Ember Celica… or at least tried to. A small, red blur threw her arm to the side just in time, and the bullet just embedded itself into a wall. Looking down, she was met with the sight of her dear sister, the same one she'd been chasing for two weeks now, almost _glaring_ up at her.

"Stop! Don't hurt him!"

Hurt him? Did she even realize that _hurting_ would be the least of what they'd do to him? That Grimm was an abomination that had to be killed before the media got a glimpse of it, or Remnant would go crazy. A new species of Grimm, never recorded before? That was too big of a thing.

"Ruby, stand back, I gotta help Qrow!" she replied, pushing her aside before pausing. She hugged her tightly before scowling at her. "And we'll talk about all this later, missy."

"Incoming!" the silver-haired guy's voice called out cheerfully, just in time for her to see Qrow being tossed aside like a rag doll as the monster turned to her.

She noticed something.

Thick, black liquid dripped from dozens of deep and shallow cuts all over its body. A few bone plates were cracked and more than a dozen spikes had been snapped off. The ichor flowed slowly, thicker than most liquids she'd seen. It could only be one thing, Grimm blood. Denser than human blood, but still able to flow. And that meant something.

It was injured.

That thing could be injured.

Qrow, for all his skill, was more fast than strong. That monster might've been strong, but if Qrow was too fast for him, it could only tank those injuries. Yang, however, was faster than the monster and stronger than Qrow, especially when using her Semblance. She was the perfect combination to kill it.

Weiss jumped in front of the Grimm and froze its muzzle with her Glyphs, but had to step back when it swiped its claws at her, missing by the breadth of a hair.A thought stopped her before she could charge in to help her teammate. That Jaune guy had defeated her back at the club. Now, he was much stronger.

Her eyes narrowed. Brain over brawn, it was. She took Ruby by the arm and shoved her back into the restaurant, maybe a bit too roughly but she had a reason to want her out of the fight. She grabbed a stray piece of concrete from the wall she'd smashed earlier and threw it at the abomination, hitting it in the chest and successfully getting its attention. "Hey, ugly! Over here!"

"He's still better looking than you!" again called out that grey guy, who was already on Yang's Beat-Up List, and was quickly rising in position.

The monster, Carnifex in Torchwick's words, seemed to take the bait and leapt towards her. Yang was prepared, though. Stepping forwards, she met it with an uppercut to the chin that splintered its jaw and forced it up, then followed it up with a sucker punch in the stomach and another into its chest.

The creature didn't even acknowledge the agony she'd just caused it. Quick as a viper, its claws snatched her arms and pulled her up, stretching them to the sides. Ignoring Qrow's pained but scared voice calling her name, Yang could only stare in horror as the monster's jaw creaked and fixed itself before it roared at her. A few droplets of saliva landed on her face as the terrifying bellow allowed her to see the inside of its mouth. Two rows of fangs instead of just one, each sharper than kitchen knives. Its throat was the colour of coal, darker than any shadow she'd ever seen in her life.

She felt wetness form between her legs, and it wasn't from arousal.

Then something slammed into the side of the Grimm's head, throwing the creature on the ground from the force of it and freeing Yang. A Glyph was hovering in the air beside the monster's former position, with a blue ethereal gauntlet reaching out from it, wielding a gigantic two-handed sword.

Immediately after striking, the Glyph shattered and the ghostly arm disintegrated.

"Yang, get up!" Weiss's sharp voice commanded as the shorter girl pulled her to her feet before releasing her and glaring. "You're welcome for that, by the way. It should stay down."

"Don't count on it," snickered Torchwick, elbowing the redhead man and pointing at Weiss, then at the downed monster, and then making an exaggerated chomping motion. The Faunus seemed to grin. Yang felt a shiver run down her back.

True to his words, 'Carnifex' stood up in record time, as if it hadn't been hit in the first place. Fortunately, Qrow landed between them and the creature before it could attack, and Yang could see the Grimm seemed wary of fighting him, probably due to its earlier brawl with the Hunter.

Good. At least it too was afraid of something.

She'd spoken way too soon.

After a moment of contemplation, the fiend growled and attacked savagely, deflecting Qrow's first strike with his scythe to try and force the Hunter to either move back or to the side, either way freeing the way to the girls. A Glyph formed under Qrow and he drove Harbinger into the abomination's chest, forcing it back a few feet. For a creature eight feet tall, that wasn't much.

The skilled Huntsman jumped back before turning to glare at them. "Run! Now!" He turned back just in time to duck under a swipe of the monster's claws and jump over another.

"No! I'm not a child, Qrow!" she exclaimed, trying to charge straight in, but before she could her legs were kicked out from under her. Out of the corner of her eyes, she saw that Weiss too had been felled. Looking up, she was met with the sight of the grey-haired guy.

"This is your only freebie," he stated cockily. "You fight, you die. Neo's keeping Red and Little Red from interfering. No one can stop him right now. Take your pick on what to do."

Yang growled and tried to punch him, but he just stepped away with a satisfied smirk, as if he'd done what he'd been there for and was now only interested in watching.

If he wanted a show, she'd give him a show, and then she'd beat the ever living daylights out of him.

/-/

Qrow Branwen was not doing well.

Oh, he was holding his own against the monster fine enough. Despite its tremendous strength and endurance and its surprising speed, the creature had no technique nor finesse, only sheer instinct. That made it hard for it to outmatch a veteran Hunter such as himself. The hit he'd taken earlier for the Schnee brat had been the only one he'd taken in the whole fight even though it had been a hard one. He doubted the monster could strike him again unless one of those two didn't put him in a tricky fix again.

No, what was worrying him was the existence of the monster itself. A Grimm hidden inside such a plain-looking young man, and such a strong Grimm at that. A team of trainee would be able to take it down if they didn't try to just overpower it, but in small villages such as the one they were in, Hunters did not reside permanently. They had to be called in, and how much destruction could it cause in the hour or so a Bullhead needed to bring Hunters in?

More importantly, that was surely Salem's work. She controlled the Grimm, and she had already infiltrated Vale, even though her pawn had escaped him. Who else would be interested in creating such monsters?

Ozpin needed to know about this, but it was too risky to tell him on Scroll call, and rushing back to him would still take time and be a messy affair with how likely the two girls were to try and escape.

He leapt over a claw. For now, he'd focus on the fight.

The Grimm was unique, that much was certain. Treating it like a normal Grimm would be a deadly mistake, one he wasn't gonna make. He had to keep it busy, too, or it'd go after Yang. He had a hunch on why.

He kicked it in the guts -or at least where a human would have the guts- and then inverted its kneecap by kicking the joint in. Pain seemed to register for the monster for the first time in the whole fight, and it trashed wildly, forcing Qrow to jump back before it crouched and swiftly cracked its knee back in place.

Oh, how did Qrow loathe those fast-healing Grimm…

That kind of threw the capturing option out of the window for the time being, unless he were to somehow manage to stop it from moving. If it could heal so quickly, wearing it down was never gonna work. He either killed it or waited to be able to call Ozpin to-

A black boot flew an inch from his head, causing him to duck and swiftly roll to the side, away from both old and new threat. Hygin or whatever his name was stared at him venomously before engaging in battle again, both blade and boot locking into each other while their owners glared.

Qrow pushed the guy off of himself, but in doing so he accidentally pushed him against the Grimm, who noticed the impact and growled at him. Fortunately, that stopped him from going after Yang and the Schnee.

Risking a quick glance over to the two, he saw that Torchwick and Taurus were effortlessly beating the crap outta them. Torchwick was wearing a mocking smirk as he deflected a punch from Yang before using the momentum to strike her with his cane, sending her stumbling ahead. Taurus was much less chatty, and was just striking mercilessly and accurately at the white haired girl's desperate defence.

A growl was the only warning he got before he had to duck under a claw again. This time, however, a boot met his face as the grey-haired boy skidded under the monster's body to kick him while he dodged. Qrow chose to let the hit push him back, narrowly avoiding another claw.

Only, he'd underestimated the Grimm. Using both the claws embedded into the concrete from the swings, it curled up like a hedgehog. Only, its dorsal spikes were the size of sabres instead of a dozen or so centimetres. Even knowing what was to come, Qrow wasn't prepared to dodge as the Grimm quite literally rolled over him, hundreds of spear-like bones biting at his skin as it did. The weight didn't help, either.

And neither did Hygin when he drove a boot into the Hunter's gut before he could get up. The 'Carnifex', as Torchwick had addressed it as, uncurled and roared again before looking at where the other four of them were battling.

"Jaune, no, stop!" Qrow dared to take his eyes off of his opponents to look at the hole in the wall. Ruby was there, looking no worse for wear, with the dichromatic midget from earlier looking quite happy to just watch the fight. He also noticed she was holding his niece back by the arm quite forcefully to keep her from just running into the fight mindlessly.

He almost thanked her for that.

Jaune, or whatever the monster now was, didn't seem to have even heard her. Leaving Qrow to Hygin, it stalked over to where the other four were fighting. He had never been its intended target. It was going for Yang and the Schnee.

Had it been a normal pissed-off guy with a bullshit Semblance, he would've said it was for hurting its sisters, but now? Was it still the reason why it was targeting them or not? It made no sense for Salem to choose them. He, a professional Hunter and a member of Ozpin's inner circle, would've been a much better prey.

He couldn't exclude something, though. Despite now being a Grimm, that 'Jaune' had kept a human appearance for quite a long time, if what he knew was correct. Maybe it wasn't a Grimm, but a hybrid like Salem, one still capable of feeling emotions and as such, of being protective of its sisters.

Which… just made it a hell lot harder, because there was no way he could take its attention off of Yang. Especially not with Hygin and the others fighting him.

He feigned a roll to the side before grabbing his scythe and firing, using the recoil to throw the guy off of himself. Still using the same momentum, he spun and struck him across the chest, throwing him back and down for a moment. The Grimm didn't acknowledge the fact he'd just downed the young man… or so he thought.

With a swift movement and a roar, the abomination ripped a chunk of the walkway and threw it at the Hunter, who had to slice it in two with Harbinger.

However, Yang and the Schnee still were its main targets.

Definitely a human intelligence, or at least a human subconscious. That was _horrible_ news. Ozpin had to know about this _immediately_. As important as rescuing Ruby was, they had no chance if _that_ was the group who had taken her, willingly or not.

And as opposite to Yang, he _did_ think Ruby went with them willingly. Who knew, maybe they weren't even as bad as he thought they were and they were just defending themselves from accusations. Point was, they didn't seem as dangerous to Ruby as he'd initially feared, and the fact Ruby was still with them instead of with Salem spoke volumes about that. Not to mention Hygin's call when he mentioned wanting an out on all that.

Speaking of Hygin, he ducked under a roundhouse and blocked a drop kick with the shaft of his scythe.

Unexpectedly, the young man jumped back just as a red projectile hit the ground where they were standing, exploding violently and throwing Qrow back.

"Uncle Qrow! No, stop, please don't hurt him!" Ruby's voice was slurred and covered by the ringing of his ears, but he was still awake and able to fight. He spun low, dodging Hygin's axe kick and sweeping his feet out from under him before taking a shot in the dark to try and hit Torchwick. The sound of a bullet bouncing off metal told him the criminal had deflected it, but at least he had pinpointed the thief correctly even through the cloud of dust and dirt the explosion kicked up.

He grunted as Hygin twirled back up and landed a kick into his side. Damn, the guy was good and fast. Rolling with the hit he feigned a slash, making him duck, before kicking him in the face and then again for good measure. A black humanoid form dashed through the thinning smoke with a crimson blade in hand, swiping at him as to try and separate his head from his shoulders.

He deflected the hit and struck Taurus in the guts with the lower end of the shaft, making him stumble as he lost all his breath, before spinning around and striking him with a full-power swing. Or at least he tried to, but Torchwick seemed to jump out of nowhere and deflected, letting it slide upwards on his cane and miss both men.

A cry of horror distracted him into looking over to the other destroyed former-restaurant. While the midget was seemingly having a great time, Ruby was looking at something in dread. He followed her gaze to the other half of the fight, finding Yang shakingly get up from the ground, and the Schnee being firmly held by her midsection in the monster's jaws as it shook her from side to side. Like an animal trying to tear its prey to pieces.

He leapt in action, forgetting about his own fight.

A huge mistake, in hindsight. A boot connected to the back of his head, knocking him down and off-balance, something neither Torchwick nor Taurus failed to take advantage of. The thief slammed his cane into his chest, sending him to the ground and breaking his Aura. Noticing that, Taurus grabbed his sheathe and flicked a switch, turning it into a rifle. He aimed at his head for a second before shrugging and shooting him in his right forearm, making him cry out in pain before Hygin used his hands for the first time in the whole fight, punching him out cold.

/-/

Yang knew the situation was critical. The combined attacks from her and Weiss had done next to nothing to the monster. Nothing it couldn't heal in a matter of seconds, anyway. She wasn't stupid, she knew what the two of them lacked in that regard was the ability to infuse their weapons with their Aura to strike harder against non-Aura-protected targets. It was taught in the Hunter Academies like Beacon during the… she didn't know which year, but it wasn't important.

Without that, even with all their strength and powers, their weapons simply lacked the sheer power to damage it enough to cripple it or slow it down.

And of course, there was that damn moment of hesitation when attacking an 8 feet tall abomination that turned out to be stronger than any other Grimm she'd ever come across.

The Grimm had no such problems. He had halved Weiss's Aura with a single hit, and hers was little more than dark orange by now. Maybe not red yet, but soon to be there. The last swipe had really hurt, both the claws themselves and the impact with the concrete. She didn't know how long they could go on like that.

She didn't know if they could go on at all.

Weiss had tried to defend her, but even them the both of them were better equipped to deal with either less tough Grimm -she refused to say _weak_ \- or human opponents, which meant variety was Weiss's main weapon instead of might. And well, with that Grimm it didn't matter if she used fire or ice, but how much of it she used, and it never seemed to be enough.

Oh, they were hurting it, no doubt about that. But not enough. And not quickly enough.

When Weiss was tossed in the air by a claw, Yang feared she'd be eaten and swallowed on her way back down, and maybe that was what the Grimm tried to do. Thankfully, it could only bite the girl's waist, hiding her entire stomach from view. Unfortunately that was enough. It began to shake its head wildly like a lion snapping its prey's neck. And it was quickly tearing down Weiss's remaining Aura.

Biting back a groan of pain, Yang stood up and fired a shell into the monster's chest, successfully getting its attention. "Come on big guy, you hungry? Weiss's all bone and skin, come and get some flesh and muscle!"

To her everlasting humiliation, the Grimm stared blankly at her before resuming to shake its head.

This time she chose a more direct approach. She charged and swung her fist in a powerful haymaker, striking its chest and making it let out a sound halfway between a roar of anger and a gasp of pain, dropping Weiss on the ground. However, what Yang hadn't planned for was its swift recovery. She was kicked on the ground and landed hard on her back. Before she could stand back up, the monster leapt on her and pinned her down, its jaws mere inches from her face.

She heard Ruby cry out her name, and then a flash of silver light blinded her. She felt the Grimm release her and stand back up, roaring in pain.

When she could see again, she gaped at the scene before her.

The creature was no more. Or rather, not alive any longer. Arms thrown up as if to shield itself from the light and muzzle turned away from it, the monster had fully turned into a dull grey stone statue.

She allowed herself a relieved chuckle, and then another, which resulted in a full blown-out laughter. It was dead, and not coming back!

"Well, at least _someone_ thinks all this is very funny," Torchwick's annoyed voice tore her away from her celebration, and she turned to face him, only to find herself facing off the whole group. Torchwick, the Faunus, the grey-haired man, the midget, an extremely tired Ruby and the supposed Summer. While the latter was avoiding her eyes and the second-to-last seemed torn between doing the same and glaring at her, the others had no such qualms. Torchwick was mockingly leaning on his cane, but his eyes were cold. The Faunus had his blade unsheathed, his mouthed curved down into a scowl that could be seen even with that blindfold on his eyes. The guy had his arms crossed and a smirk on his face, but his gaze held no amusement. And finally the midget, the only one who didn't look stern, who just smiled sweetly at her.

"Torchwick," she spat venomously. "Give me back my sister… and my mother."

"Uhm, let me think about it…" he tutted in that infuriating way of his. "Mmh… no."

"Do it," she ordered. "Or I'll make you do it."

"Ha," he laughed, only once, full of sarcasm. "You… on your last legs, with all of your comrades down for the count and not likely to fight anytime soon, against all of us? You know, Jaune did most of the work in keeping you busy. We had all the time we needed to pick you off as we wished. Too easy."

"You bastard!" she seethed.

"My mother was a fine lady, thank you very much," he replied nonchalantly. "Now, since you didn't bother to call the police, I did for you, telling them to come once the noise of fighting had died down. Which reminds me." He raised his cane and shot the building, blowing it up some more. "You're welcome for that, by the way. So, now we'll be taking our friend over there and go, okay?"

Yang growled. "Over my dead body."

"That can be arranged," shrugged Torchwick, taking aim over her head. "Are you sure?"

Yang scoffed. He'd have to aim a lot lower if he wanted to hit her.

He grinned and shot the explosive shell, which impacted the statue behind her with the sound of shattering stone. She returned his grin. "Missed," she taunted him.

His smile didn't waver. "Did I?"

Yang's fun died a horrible death when she heard growling from behind her. Slowly, she turned around, finding the monster still alive under the stone, its eyes and cracks now a deep purple.

It was still alive.

And looking quite healthy too.

She stepped back, but once she did, she felt something hit the back of her head, and the world went black.

/-/

Watching the girl calm the blonde human down into abandoning his Grimm form, Taurus couldn't help but feel disappointed. True, the Schnee had been used as a chew toy for a while and would probably bear those bite marks forever, but she hadn't died.

And the assassin had stopped him from finishing her off. Even now he was glaring at him with a clear warning in his grey eyes. A warning he apparently needed to translate into words as well. "We have to go now, Taurus, and killing the disgraced heiress of the biggest company on the planet and daughter of the richest man alive is _not_ how we want this accident to blow up to epic proportions. If the news get all over the media, we'll get in trouble."

"We'll get in trouble either way," grumbled Taurus, removing his shirt and throwing it at the blonde human without even looking. "We just beat up Qrow fucking Branwen and two brats, one of which is the Schnee heiress. The media will love this story."

"Ozpin will cover everything up as usual," the assassin shook his head. "He'll think we are associated with our former boss's own boss, who he knows, and keep what happened a secret so he'll manage to manipulate people more easily."

"Manipulate them into what?" he sighed, already fed up with the guy's reasoning. "Waging war against the Grimm? It's literally what Hunters do."

The assassin opened his mouth to reply, but he was cut off when the thief called for them to move quickly before grabbing the first bottle he found in the restaurant and emptying it on Branwen's head, waking him up at least partially. The pain of his injured arm would do the rest, and hopefully he'd manage to get everyone out without the media having a field day with it. Then the thief shot another explosive flare, this time at the remains of the statue, destroying whatever likeliness it still held to the original.

As they all hurried to grab their backpacks and run, with the blonde human stumbling a little as he took the clothes the thief had just bought for him and struggled to put them on without slowing down. The assassin approached him again as they sneaked out of the town by the secondary alleys.

"Answer my question, Taurus. If you had an army of humans thirsty for Faunus blood at your doorstep, and let's say you had an annoying brother who just then decides to bring home a hooker who you know will keep you up all night with her dramatic screams, what would you do? Would you grab your sword and face that army alongside the rest of the White Fang, or would you stay inside, yelling at your brother for being a little shit you can't stand?"

Taurus snorted, but he got the comparison. "I'd fight the humans, obviously."

"Then pray tell why is humanity more worried about fighting each other, criminals or just people they don't along with, instead of focusing on the greater threat?" he finished with a victorious smirk.

"Because the Grimm aren't an impeding threat. At times they may be dangerous, but they're not at our doorstep. Criminals are." Everyone knew that. Or at least, every Hunter with a little bit of brain in their skull. The people ignored the Grimm because they weren't in their jaws yet, so they could afford to complain about their favourite TV show being cancelled or about the morning traffic. Even though humanity only had around five percent of the whole world.

"Exactly. So, what do you prepare your future warriors to fight against? The old, forgotten threat of the Grimm, or the newer threat of the criminals?" The assassin spat to the side. "Now that Grimm are easily kept at bay, or so they think, they train kids to fight the 'bad guys'… like you, me, Torchwick… everyone of us."

"I may have broken a lot of laws, but I do not kill for the sake of killing," he retorted, looking straight at the assassin as he said that, who shrugged.

"As Torchwick likes to call himself, we are all people let down by the system, who were forced to learn how to survive without the system and now don't need the system any more. And you know why the system wants us gone?" Taurus didn't reply, slightly intrigued. "It's because they know that if they don't get rid of us, if they don't continue the illusion that the system is invincible and infallible, people will start following our footsteps and rebel to a system that concentrates all the decisional power in the hands of a few people they don't even ever _see_. They want to get rid of us because our very existence is proof the system isn't infallible. We are a threat to its integrity."

Taurus frowned. For all his stupid antics and his irritating behaviour, the assassin had a point. A very good point, too. People outside the system could fall in two categories. People who could be painted as bad guys and thus have the people turned against them, or people who could be absorbed back into the system. Criminals like them fell into the first. Even he could see how _he_ had been a threat to the system. A Faunus who rebelled against the system and claimed it to be wrong and prejudiced, going as far as fighting against it to prove his point. He proved to the people that yes, they could rise above the lives the system had chosen for them and make one for themselves.

 _'A threat indeed…'_

 ** _I'm talking about Mercury's view here, I'm not an anarchist, I just liked the idea of the bad guys thinking themselves a threat to the system instead of just people who broke the law._**

 ** _Now, about Ozpin covering it up. His motto is 'we can't let the people panic'. The news about a new unique Grimm showing up in the middle of the town, out of the blue, would cause fear. The news of a bunch of the most dangerous criminals on Remnant (as far as canon goes right now) showing up all together and causing a fight with a Hunter? Panic worthy. The news of two disgraced Huntress trainees who were supposedly still being detained in Beacon, starting a fight in a frontier town? Well, it would make many people look at Ozpin for answers, and we all know Ozpin hates giving answers. So for him it's better to cover it all up, throw away the lock to Weiss and Yang's shared cell, and discuss about it with Qrow._**

 ** _And finally, read and review and goodbye! Oh, right, holiday announcement: I'll be gone the whole month of October. Visiting Italy with the family to say hi to a bunch of friends. Don't expect updates. I don't even know if I'll have my computer with me._**

 ** _Until next time,_**

 ** _Khor Evik Vlakhavlakh_**


	24. Jaws of Karma - Aftermath

**_Small AN, reminder - I'll be gone the whole month of October, which means that any PM, review or whatnot will be answered on November the... don'treallyknowwhenth. In a week, I'll literally be on a plane... or maybe I'll be in Italy already. I seriously hope so. First thing we do is eat pizza, of course! I'll tell you how it went next time I update something, which will be on November, obviously._**

It had been a shitty week for one Qrow Branwen, and the current day surely wasn't helping his mood.

He felt like he could be forgiven for a little bit of complaining after what he'd gone through. First there was the wild goose chase that led him absolutely nowhere. Torchwick was a professional and following his tracks would take _a lot_. Qrow, as skilled as he was, was not skilled in every field of being a Hunter. He could spy just fine and even get some information out of people, but when it came to tracking, he wasn't the sharpest tool for the cut.

Of course his misfortune hadn't stopped there. Yang, and Ice Queen Jr for some reason he guessed started with 'bitchy and arrogant' and ended with 'pride', had to butt in and get themselves in trouble not once, not twice, but _thrice_ over, each a more serious situation than the last. Yang wanted to find Ruby, and while he understood how she felt he knew she had vastly overstepped the line. Ice Queen Jr, he didn't really know how it started. Probably because Yang had dragged the whole team to that club and then it became a matter of pride and a desire for answers once the Arc kid mentioned Winter. And after she got into serious trouble because of Yang's hotheadedness and risked losing just about everything from her heritage share to her title, she helped a bandit tribe after escaping confinement alongside Yang. And then said blonde had the smart idea to try and fight what was probably an S- or SS-Class unknown Grimm and the rest of those people.

Oh, and he didn't forget that those people had also given him a good old fashioned beating.

Who those people were was just another headache. Roman Torchwick, criminal mastermind and stupidly skilled thief. Adam Taurus, former leader of the Valean branch of the White Fang, terrorist through and thorough. Bicoloured girl, probably not the cleanest herself. And Mercury Black, son of Marcus Black – which he could only assumed had inherited his father's skills and profession as assassin.

He didn't forget about Summer, either. The mere thought of her made him feel conflicted. Part of him wanted to scream and shout and cry and jump right up to the sky in joy at knowing she was alive and kicking. Part of him was worried because she hadn't interfered with the whole situation and because… well, because she wasn't in his very overprotective sight of course.

And finally Ruby, who he'd seen was safe and sound.

Which should've made no sense considering the reputation of the people she was with, but which somehow actually _did_.

Torchwick, gone missing after a series of very uncharacteristic highly risky thefts. Taurus, gone missing months prior, just before the White Fang started stealing Dust. Black, who had _directly_ told him he was out of the game and sold out his former boss. Bicoloured girl… who he had no idea whether she was a criminal or not. Arc, a criminal but not a serious one, and going from how angry he'd been because his sisters had gotten hurt by Yang, he couldn't really see him harming Ruby unless in Grimm form – which Ruby seemed to have a countermeasure for.

All in all, the whole group might've had a very bad reputation and backgrounds, and most of them might've not been the nicest people to be around, but they didn't seem to be doing anything bad _at the moment_. Qrow wasn't one to give second chances so easily, but even he could see that Ruby was well-fed, unharmed, and most of all comfortable around those people… kind of. He hadn't seen her around them in the most normal of situations.

And then there was Summer, who looked more at ease with them than talking with Qrow and Yang. Which could be understandable since it had been eight years since the last time she'd seen them, but which really hurt.

And that was why at the moment, seated -or more like sprawled- on a chair in front of Ozpin, he didn't really know what to say. He was certain that the group wasn't one to be messed with, and that any further contact should be made only with the intentions of _talking_ with Ruby, not _rescuing_ her or anything since it was clear she didn't need to be rescued. However, Ozpin would probably think otherwise, and to some degrees he could agree.

Ruby and Summer, both Silver Eyed Warriors, the only ones they knew of. Both in the hands of a third party no one could control or predict. And Ozpin _loathed_ not knowing where the pieces where on the huge chessboard that was life. He hated not knowing which side they were on – because as much as they weren't on Salem's side, they surely held no fondness for them either.

Ozpin couldn't just allow them to run around unchecked. They were among the most dangerous individuals in Vale and two of them were just about the two most important individuals in existence, alongside the four Maidens.

"-And so when I woke up, which was pretty quickly by the way, I got Yang and Ice Queen Jr out of sight and then explained everything to the police once they arrived," he finished his tale with a swing of his flask, cursing under his breath when he noticed its contents had gone down his throat already. "'Course, I didn't tell them what actually happened. I said shit hit the fan and I got into an unexpectedly huge fight. Was a hard blow to my pride, but I managed to convinced them I just lost."

Ozpin hummed thoughtfully, something Qrow absolutely abhorred. Those hums could mean just about anything, and more often than not Ozpin was planning something he would only tell him a fraction of, a master plan he would know nothing about until he was directly involved, or until after he'd set it in motion.

Fortunately, in this case, he knew what was probably going through the Headmaster's mind.

"I'd say we leave them alone, Oz. Sure, I'm gonna try and contact Ruby again, but I'll be damned if I get into another fight like that," he continued, unusually sternly for someone who took pride in being drunk more hours than the day could offer. "They are a third party – a neutral party who had no interest in either side, or in the war as a whole."

"This war affects everyone."

"But not everyone has to be a soldier, Ozpin." Qrow sighed, frustrated. As often as they argued, Ozpin and Ironwood were actually pretty similar sometimes. The only difference was that Ozpin saw his soldiers in just about anyone he was interested in, while Ironwood only considered his own army the only usable warriors. "Yes, they know how to fight – I tested that with my face. But they don't _want_ to fight this war. They don't want anything to do with any of us, or _them_. Trying to forcefully involve or Gods forbid _direct_ them will only lead to disaster. They've broken free from a boss already, and they have no intention to get another one."

"Not even if I offer them help in fighting their former boss, from who they are fleeing from?" Ozpin asked sardonically. But this time, Qrow knew that wasn't the case.

"You said it, Oz. They are fleeing. They don't want to fight their former boss, they are just running away or hiding or doing whatever they're doing," he replied almost snappily. "Oz, trust me on this one. I think they should be left to their own devices. We have no way to make them cooperate with us. You know I'm the first who'd want Ruby and Summer back, but if we try to get them back we can only cause trouble. And besides, they didn't _look_ like they wanted to come back anyway."

Ozpin seemed slightly surprised at that. "How so?"

"I mean, I guess Summer is kind of uncomfortable with going back to people she hasn't seen for almost a decade." He shrugged slightly. Yep, it still hurt like a bitch. "And Ruby… I don't know. Maybe she's tired of Tai's and Yang's overprotectiveness and wants to explore the world on her own without those two threatening to rip the balls off any boy that comes within ten miles of their 'innocent little rose' and overall scare the shit out of any potential friend. Or maybe she's got something to do. Or she feels guilty and is afraid of coming home. I don't know, but for once, I'll have to trust _her_ , not the other way around, because it's the only thing I can do."

Ozpin hummed again and took a sip from his mug. "How are Ms Xiao Long and Ms Schnee?"

Qrow groaned. "Detained in Beacon's basement, their Auras sealed, weapons confiscated, chained up, _so_ fun, is that what you mean?" he replied sarcastically before groaning again. "Yang's mostly fine. Shaken, but all her injuries are gonna heal easily. Ice Queen Jr got off with the worst injuries. She was almost bitten _in half_ , and the wounds almost got infected. She's out of life danger, but she's still gonna need a lot of time to recuperate. That's gonna scar and it's not gonna be pretty, even with Aura-Dust-medicine mixes."

"And what about their…" Ozpin searched for the correct way to put it for a second. " _Psychological_ well-being?"

"Ice Queen Jr is, to put it simply, unresponsive. Probably the shock of everything that's happened caught up with her. That, and I told her Ice Que- oh damn, whatever, Winter wanted a chat. Ice Queen Jr probably ain't looking forward to that." Eventually, the younger Schnee was the easy problem to solve. She'd been led by pride, arrogance but mostly a rebellious attitude that led her to do things her own way when she hadn't been given answers, and once she'd gotten the ball rolling, she had found out forth was the only way she could go. Yang, on the other hand, was way more complicated. "Yang is… Gods, I don't even know any more. I know she's worried for Ruby and I know she hasn't learned her lesson about not trying to bring Ruby back. At the same time, it's like she lost all her confidence. She's not a stranger to losing, but she's never been outclassed so completely."

Qrow snorted. As much as he loved his nieces, both had glaringly obvious flaws. "Yang's way too used to being strong. In a way, she takes after her mother – she's always wanted to be strong enough to protect Ruby, so Tai trained her hard, so she was the best among her age. Which means she rarely ever lost, especially with that pesky Semblance of hers. But now she's gotten a tidbit of how the real world is." He really wished he had his flask still full. "She's learned that in the real world, you ain't matched up with people around your level. And now she's lost all her confidence, because that defeat hit her hard – they weren't even taking her seriously. So she's torn between wanting to fight them again to rescue Ruby, and being afraid of fighting them again. Not the nicest combination."

Ozpin sipped his coffee, seemingly unconcerned. "Is she aware those were among the most skilled fighters Vale's underworld has to offer?"

"It doesn't matter to her. Defeat is unacceptable, or at least utter defeat is. She wasn't even able to put up a fight." Deep down, Qrow hoped she'd learn from that and would not let it destroy her, but her career as a Huntress was done either way so…

Ozpin hummed thoughtfully once again. "Are you aware James will supervise the Vytal Festival?"

Qrow spat in disgust, earning a raised eyebrow from Ozpin. "Yeah. Ice Queen told me. I wasn't happy about it. If she'd wanted to gloat, she shouldn't have called me. Next time I see her…"

"We have more pressing matters than your feud with Specialist Schnee, Qrow," the Headmaster reprimanded, making him roll his eyes. "I cannot stop James now, and we all know how dangerous-"

"Salem is only as dangerous as you let her be," Qrow finally snapped, the stress of the whole week piling up and reaching the point of overflowing. "She's too afraid of calling an all-out attack, a world-wide invasion of Grimm, because she _knows_ she would lose. So _we_ are the ones calling the shots at the Vytal Festival. Grimm can't push us much more than this – we only have a _twentieth_ of the whole damn world. Which means she has to either destroy our defences or bypass them entirely and attack from within. Both can only happen if we let our guard down and let her infiltrate us!"

"It's not as easy as you think, Qrow," Ozpin retorted heatedly. "Salem has millennia of experience-"

"And so do you." Qrow stood up from the chair. "Ozpin, Jimmy is an asshole sometimes, but he's right on one thing – we cannot wait for Salem to have destroyed Vale before we do something. We have to _prevent_ her from destroying us, not countering after it happened. We cannot afford to lose any of the four main cities – it'd be the beginning of the end."

Without waiting for the Headmaster to reply, Qrow turned around and walked into the elevator. Then a sudden thought struck him and he blocked the closing doors with a hand. "Oh, and Ozpin? Leave that group alone. Independent third parties aren't always bad news. And we definitely don't have the resources to deal with them _and_ with Salem at the same time."

And with that, the elevator's doors closed.

/-/

Cinder Fall was panting slightly by the time the last droid fell, hacked to pieces.

A mocking applause drew her attention to Watts, who was standing nearby as he watched her fight. He was grinning like usually, with enough mockery and arrogance to drown a city. "Ten point six seconds for thirty-three Atlasian Knights. It's a zero point eight improvement on your last score… though still six point nine seconds slower than your performance _before_ your… accident."

Cinder ground her teeth and glared at the smug scientist. "Anything else?"

"Yes. We've run out of Atlasian Knights," he blandly informed her before sighing exaggeratedly. "It appears you will have to infiltrate Beacon Academy at only a third of your original power… although if you keep up with the training regime I came up with, you will be able to regain your past combat abilities within… three more weeks. Just in time for the Vytal Festival."

"So it's all ready?" She really hoped he would say yes, that everything was ready and that she could finally get rid of his infuriating presence. That she could finally go to Beacon and initiate her modified plan, and that not everything had been for nothing. Her plans had changed – the Breaching of Vale wouldn't have to happen since she had no thief to place on the airship. Instead, she would just infect the CCTV with her virus and then give the Scroll to somehow who would then infiltrate Atlas's battleships to install the Scroll and take control of the Atlasian battleships and army. Then, she would just need to get rid of any defence Amber might've had, and the Maiden powers would be hers.

"It is," nodded the disgraced doctor. "However, I need to ask – you plan to rile up the crowd during the Vytal Festival. How, exactly?"

"By letting them see how violent and uncontrollable Hunters really are." Cinder allowed herself a tiny, cruel smirk as she explained her master plan. "I will examine the students once I infiltrate Beacon successfully, and think of possible match-ups. Pyrrha Nikos will surely be one of my targets due to her fame and popularity – what will people say on seeing their idol maim or better yet kill someone?"

Watts stared flatly at her. "You are trying to cause an SS-Rank Grimm invasion on both Beacon and Vale with enough Grimm to take out the majority of the Hunters at the Amity Coliseum? Either you overestimate yourself, or you underestimate your enemies."

"Neither," she snapped angrily, like she always did when he had a crack at her like that. "Ozpin will never see this coming. The enemy, right under his nose? He wouldn't know. And even if he would, he would have no proof."

"And what's keeping him from forgetting about proof and killing you because he's suspicious? Or maybe just detain you until the end of the Festival?" Watts explained patiently, as if talking to a small child – which he knew infuriated her. "The old man is paranoid at times. Keep in mind he's been around for as long as Salem has."

"And he still hasn't gotten a single strip of land back from the Grimmlands," snorted Cinder. "He's a coward hiding in his tower until the last moment. He won't ever see this coming."

"Still, it's quite the ambitious plan just to get the Fall Maiden's powers," Watts commented idly. "Not to mention, since we don't know the location of the Relic, it might be unwise to lay waste to Beacon and Vale and possibly burying it with the rest of Ozpin's secrets. And what about the students? There'll be enough to stop the Grimm."

"Not if I manage to awaken the Wyvern in Mt Glenn," Cinder stated smugly, expecting Watts to be dumbstruck. Unfortunately for her, that wasn't the case.

"As if Ozpin and his group wouldn't try to do something about that. The Wyvern is powerful, but not _that_ powerful. It's not invincible, far from it." He sneered at her in disdain. "What about the White Fang? Beacon is one of the most Faunus-friendly places in the world, second to Menagerie, and Hunters defend both humans and Faunus from the Grimm. They're not going to attack such a symbol of peace."

"They will, because it will show how powerful they are and eventually the human vermins will be crawling at their feet, waiting to be punished for all their heinous crimes against the Faunus, maybe even enslaved like they did to the Faunus," Cinder smirked wider. "Their words, almost precisely so."

"Who did you put at the head of the White Fang if you got rid of Taurus? Who could be so extremist?"

"A certain chameleon Faunus called Ilia Amitola. She followed Taurus everywhere, ideologically speaking, and idolizes his methods as the only ones that work." Cinder grabbed a water bottle and took a long sip to rehydrate her body after her training. "Maybe not as violent as Taurus, but she'll do just fine. Lost her parents in a mineshaft cave-in or something, huge grudge against humans. You know the type."

"You do realize you are human yourself?"

"But I bring change, money, Dust and the chance of revenge against _more_ humans," grinned Cinder. "She has already accepted to work with us to steal the Dust… and she doesn't need to know she's indirectly working for the Queen of the Grimm."

"She'll find out your plan," Watts stated matter-of-factly. "You can't order her to attack Beacon _while_ there's a Grimm invasion. She'll be worried for her underlings. And she'll see it as too much of a risk, too big of a target. Why didn't you choose Tyrian?"

"Tyrian worked to stoke them up a bit, but I needed someone who was mentally sane and could take orders," she snapped again. Oh how she hated discussing her plans with Watts. "Even the White Fang isn't stupid enough to follow a deranged, murderous psychopath."

"Adam Taurus wasn't much better, only not deranged." She knew he took pleasure in mocking her and prodding at every tiny hole in her reasoning.

"But he could hide it under the pretence of being the saviour of Faunuskind by violent means. Tyrian just plain likes to inflict pain." Cinder huffed. "Besides, Amitola seems to be easier to manipulate. She's full of conflicting emotions."

"Which means she could be manipulated by others as well."

"Well, if you're so smart, Watts, tell me: why didn't Salem choose _you_ for this?" Cinder growled, anger spiking above the usual high level it stood at whenever Watts was around.

"Because I am genetically unfit and unable to complete the main objective of this mission due to certain prerequisites set by unbreakable forces out of my control," he replied flatly. "Or, to put it more plainly, I have a chromosome too many."

Cinder seethed. He was making it sound like he'd be the perfect candidate, had he been a chick, and that the only reason she was assigned that mission was because she had something more on her chest and something less between her legs. "Shut your mouth or I'll change that with fire," she snapped at him, forming a fireball with her non-robotic arm.

Watts just grinned smugly, satisfied with having gotten under her skin one more time.

/-/

Ruby didn't know how to feel.

On one hand, she was happy no one had been killed in the fight, and she was happy Yang hadn't hurt Jaune for something he didn't do. She was happy her new 'friends' or whatever they were had gotten out of there. And she was subtly happy she hadn't been caught either, because she knew that if Yang ever managed to 'rescue' her, she'd be grounded for literal life. Either she returned of her own will, showing them that she had a life and could come and go as she pleased, or she didn't return at all – which sounded really bad, but it was an option she didn't really want to follow.

On the other hand, she'd watched her friends fight her family, and she felt guilty for basically having been cheering her friends on. Not really, but she couldn't help but hope they'd win and she wouldn't have to be forced back to the house and lectured for hours on her rebellious behaviour.

Yeah, Yang talking about rebellious was truly ironic but it wouldn't be the first time she received one such lecture.

Besides, it was too early to go back. Not just because she wanted to help Jaune and the others, but because of her mother. Summer had just been freed, she wasn't ready to be glomped and fussed over by everyone, which was exactly what she'd receive from the family she left behind. Not only that, but she wasn't used to being around people any more. She was just starting to get used to anyone asides from Taurus, whom she'd known for a while already. And they weren't overprotective, over-worried relatives who admittedly had every reason to be so.

And finally, she'd kind of gotten used to having the whole gang around. They weren't trustworthy, nor kind, nor nice, but in their own ways, they had her back, even if just because they needed her.

For example Torchwick wasn't that much of a bad guy when it came to daily stuff. He was still sarcastic and what her sister might've called an asshole or a jackass, but he wasn't _evil_ nor mean, most of the time at least. He had a very sarcastic sense of humour and wasn't afraid to speak his mind whenever he felt like it, which was pretty often. But even when he did sass the others, it was never truly with the intent to make them feel _too_ bad, more like uphold his own mood. And of course, he never missed a chance to 'teach' the others about whatever he knew that they didn't, even if it was mostly just to brag.

Mercury, instead, didn't do that. He rarely ever taught her anything aside what she strictly needed to know to do something, and even then it had only happened once or twice in the three or four days she'd known him. His sense of humour was more caustic and offensive when compared to Roman's thick sarcasm, and he used just as often, but he had a penchant for using it on other people or things rather than on those in their little group – like back at that hotel slash restaurant.

Neo was complicated. She was pretty normal, even if she never spoke and almost never had any kind of input on anything. But then again she didn't seem fazed by anything, crimes or kills. From what she'd been told by Roman, the woman -because she _was_ a woman in her twenties, not a girl like she initially thought- was his right hand, skilled in fighting, stealth and assassination. For someone with those skills, she was basically the most normal of the group.

Though Jaune took the cake for that one. Despite not being exceptionally talkative, Jaune was pretty normal. He accepted teasing and mockery from Roman and Mercury, and he had a bit of a sarcastic side himself, but other than that he was pretty calm and nice. When he wasn't a nine feet Grimm monster hellbent on feasting on someone's vital organs, of course, but that went without saying.

What also went without saying was that she would probably never get used to Adam Taurus. The man was pretty much an enigma. He was a terrorist and murderer, but he acted almost… emo. Emo, with a bit of goth thrown in the whole. Always silent, and whenever he talked, there was a lot of hatred lacing his words – but not hatred towards his companions. He would get angry at them, especially when Roman or Mercury insulted the Faunus, but most of the time he was like he was thinking about something else, something he loathed with all his being, and everything around him was just a mere distraction.

But, despite all odds, despite all her expectations, despite all their reputations, and despite all their behaviours, she didn't feel too uncomfortable with them. Jaune would usually tell Roman or Mercury to cut it out whenever they went too far with teasing or mocking her, Adam didn't seem to care one way or the other, and Summer seemed to be even more out of her depth than she was.

But they took care of her.

They actually took care of her. Nothing homey or nice or warm, of course. They checked if she was alright with the excuse of 'checking if she could walk' and she'd seen them more than once stealing glances at her to check if she was fine, nodding slightly to themselves when she was. They stopped if she was tired, again something she hadn't expected from the group of hardened criminals. But one of the most shocking events had been when Roman had gently tucked her blanket over her when he thought she was sleeping, just because it had fallen a bit too low and she could've gotten cold. It had been a swift, silent gesture that hadn't been accompanied by a smile or some warmth from the thief, but he had done it nonetheless.

For Ruby, the whole group was just a group of softies not used to be softies. Well, kind of anyway.

Oh damn it, at least they were people and not heartless monsters like she'd feared.

"We should stop," Roman stated, proving her theory that they indeed kept an eye on how she was doing – and she wasn't doing fine since she wasn't used to so much walking and running. "We can think of what to do tomorrow."

"We can't go back to civilization, that much is sure," snorted Mercury, dropping his backpack without a care in the world. "Qrow Branwen is one of Ozpin's main agents. He knows our faces, Ozpin knows our faces. By tomorrow or the day after, we might be on Vale's most wanted list, our faces broadcast to the people and maybe a good ol' bounty on our heads. It's not nice when your head is worth to others more than it is to you. Just going back is suicide. Which leaves the underworld, which is what we fled from since Cinder rules there. The way I see it, we're in for a nice, long vacation in the Grimmlands."

"Or not," Jaune replied with a shrug. "We could do something else. Adam wants to get back to the White Fang – what if we tagged along? I was probably going to since I have nothing else to do and I'm now wanted by the law. At least it would give us something useful to do – can you imagine the leader of the White Fang owing you a favour?"

"I don't owe favours to humans," Adam grunted, moody as always. However, the fact he didn't say anything else probably meant he wasn't against the idea like he pretended to be.

"We could split up, otherwise," offered Jaune. "Each to themselves. We part ways and good bye to everyone."

Neo gave a thumbs-up at that proposition, indicating she would probably prefer that.

"No, we can't. Not if we don't want to die," Mercury stated gloomily, glaring at his backpack on the ground. Then he sighed. "I don't like to say this any more than you do, but the truth is, we've made ourselves Cinder's enemies, and probably Ozpin's too. If we stay on our own, we'll get caught, and death will be a gift if that happens. Both are way too powerful, with too many contacts. Even fleeing the Kingdom isn't going to help. While I'm sure all of us would be able to avoid Ozpin's spies if it really comes down to it, or at most fight them off, it's Cinder the one we should worry about. She's as prideful, vindictive and cruel as she is powerful. She won't hesitate to track us down and torture us for a _long_ time before killing us. The only way we can fend her off is if we stick together."

"A single woman can't be that powerful," Summer spoke up, a bit worried by the seriousness in the assassin's voice – which was almost a first, since he rarely took anything seriously.

Mercury sighed again and ran a hand through his hair. "Yeah, I think I gotta explain this, since you're all probably on her hit list, and if I don't explain you'll never take me seriously. Cinder isn't the biggest fish in the ocean. She takes orders from someone… or some _thing_ , depending on how you want to see it."

"A supercomputer?" asked Roman, slightly surprised. "Or a robot of some kind?"

"A Schnee?" Adam shrugged off the looks he was sent. "As far as I am concerned, they don't deserve the title of 'person'."

Ruby opened her mouth to protest… and then her eyes fell on the now-uncovered SDC logo branded with fire on his marred face. She shuddered and stayed quiet. She had no right to speak of something she didn't understand.

"Wrong and wrong, though it does have white hair." Mercury's eyes hardened as he steeled himself. "Her name is Salem. She's… the Queen of the Grimm."

There wasn't even silence afterwards.

"You're kidding," Roman deadpanned at him, and beside him Neo was giving him a 'what the fuck' look.

Adam snorted and shook his head in disbelief, and even Jaune didn't look like he believed a word. As for Ruby, well… that was kind of too unlikely to be true.

Summer stayed silent.

Mercury chuckled drily at their response. "Yeah, that's what I expected. So let me get into the details…"


	25. Earth-Shattering News

**_Hello everyone, it's been three months since last DarkerShade and I have literally zero reasons for that. Well, one... which is work and catching up with my other fanfictions._**

 ** _Anyway! Enjoy!_**

The campfire burned brightly as the seven of them sat around it, on the ground or on some logs they found lying around. As opposite to camping trips, the one telling the story wasn't the one feeding the fire nor the one preparing the food, two tasks that fell on Taurus and Jaune respectively.

Instead, Mercury sat on the ground, legs crossed, not too far from the fire. Neo sat by his right, while Ruby, Summer and Torchwick took the other three sides of the fire.

"Now, let's start from the beginning," Mercury started with the most cliché start ever, but he felt like he could be excused for that. "I had just killed my asshole of a father, the man who destroyed my life up until a few months ago. Heck, The house was still burning. I see this two chicks arrive – Cinder and Emerald. Emerald was a fucking kiss-ass bitch, she's dead now. Cinder wanted my father for her plan, originally, the great assassin Marcus Black. She found me, near my father's corpse." The silver-haired boy scoffed. "I'd won the fight but my legs were beyond saving. She offered to replace them with prosthetics if I were to work for her. I didn't really have much of a choice. Going to the hospital meant I'd be identified and put in prison – my name wasn't clear back then. So Cinder brought me to this man, Watts, who delegated to one of his assistants the task of building me my new legs."

He pulled up his pants to show them the metal prosthetics that arrived a bit over his knees. Ruby's eyes went wide and she put her hands over her mouth. Jaune grimaced. The others didn't react much. "Then, to make sure I kept my word, she showed me how she could control the Grimm. She made a Beowolf act like a guard dog. Then, just to boast on her power more, she made it do several others things like cooking, cleaning and act like a chicken. She had complete control over it." The fire cast long shadows on the boy, making him look like a cynical spirit of the forest who'd come to tell them a story. "Soon, I learned that it took a lot out of her to dominate Grimm like that, but she could easily direct them, and they never attacked her."

"I think the only reason she introduced us to her boss was because she planned for us to be her long-term underlings, like her boss too had servants, and like Watts had assistants. She likes her secrets, so I can't think of any other reason. Whatever. She made it clear we couldn't betray her even if we wanted, and then she brought us to the Grimmlands."

"That sounds pretty far-fetched," Jaune spoke up, stirring the pot of whatever bland food they'd have that evening for dinner. "But I guess it makes sense. If Cinder and Watts had the same boss, and both could control the Grimm, it's not so hard to think of someone who can control them, maybe a Semblance or something she can lend to people…"

Mercury burst out laughing, but he sobered up very quickly, which was usually a bad sign coming from the boy. "No, Grimm Boy, I'm talking about an honest-to-Oum humanoid Grimm. White skin with black veins, white hair, black dress, crimson eyes with black sclera, it was the complete package. That's why she could give them power over the Grimm."

"That sounds far too unbelievable to be true," Taurus snorted. "I think it was probably a Semblance that made her look like that. Human Grimm don't exist. Even _he_ can't control Grimm, or he would've controlled that Deathstalker back in the labs."

"Whatever, be it a Semblance or not she controlled the Grimm and allowed Watts and Cinder to control them too!" Mercury snapped, throwing his arms in the air. "It doesn't matter. What matters is that she can control Grimm, and through her Cinder can too. Salem's her name, and she's the only person I've ever seen Cinder be respectful with."

Torchwick whistled, impressed. "Cinder, respectful? Either you're joking or this Salem woman must be _really_ bad news."

"It is bad news," nodded Mercury. "Now, I'll try to convince you one more time, but first I'll ask you the same question she asked me and Emerald when we met her… what's your favourite fairy tale?"

"Fairytales?" Taurus snorted. "You've gone mad. Why would that matter?"

Mercury grinned and leaned forwards. "Have you ever heard of _The Girl in the Tower_ and _The Four Maidens_?"

"Classics," nodded Jaune. "I used to tell them to my sisters before bed."

"Well then… it's a funny story, actually…" Mercury smirked as he began to narrate a _much_ different version of those tales.

/-/

Winter Schnee didn't know how to feel.

She never thought it'd be possible to be disgusted by her own family until she found out just how vile her father really was. Then, she'd never thought she'd feel similar disgust towards her sister, who had up until then always been a wonderful, if a bit stubborn and formal, person.

A part of her wanted to ignore everything she'd done and just comfort her, but how could she? Weiss had a secret kept from her and, instead of accepting she wouldn't be told, she had gone out of her way to try and learn of it on her own, disregarding the consequences of her actions.

She knew Weiss wasn't a bad person by any mean, even after everything she'd done, but deep down she couldn't help but fear that leaving home so soon and leaving Weiss to live under Jacques's thumb had eventually made the girl think her actions were justified. Jacques too had done some pretty shady stuff, but as long as everything worked out the way he wanted, he'd never been bothered by it. Weiss seemed to have inherited a similar mindset. And after she'd been stripped of her dream the first time, she'd thought that pursuing Torchwick's group and capturing them would set things right and give her back what she'd lost.

She never realized that there was one such thing as too far or too late.

Weiss, for all her intelligence, and despite all of Jacques's coldness, had never truly understood what her actions could cause. Of course she would be punished if she did something wrong at home, but she'd never learn what exactly it meant to commit a crime. She blamed that partially on herself – she was in the military, and yet she'd never taught Weiss to respect the laws no matter how absurd they seemed to be.

So, in Weiss's mind, it had been an injustice towards her that she'd needed to rectify. Not having ever known how harshly Hunters are punished for crimes, she'd received a very unpleasant surprise in the form of a harsh sentence. To be honest, Hunters in training usually received harsher punishments so to set them right before they became Hunters, but still Winter knew it was a fair law.

Weiss hadn't seen it that way. All the collateral damage she'd caused hadn't really registered to her because in her mind, she was doing her job. And then she was punished for doing her job. Sure, later she realized just why she'd been punished, but still she couldn't understand how they could give her such treatment.

Back home, she was warned of what the punishment would be for failing or disobeying. That time she hadn't.

Winter hated to say it, but Weiss's ignorance of how the world worked, due to always living in a controlled environment, where she was quite pampered if not by Jacques, definitely by the servants, had eventually caused her to act like a spoiled child and rebel against a punishment seen as unfair.

Fortunately, she'd thought that doing good and capturing the wanted criminals was a better choice then trying for the legal way. With how influential Schnees were, she wasn't sure who would win. Maybe Jacques would sweep the rug from under her feet to keep the blame away from the Schnee family and disown her, but he could also support her to try and force Beacon on its knees before taking advantage of that.

Unfortunately, the wanted criminals she tried to apprehend were far beyond anything she'd ever fought. The Arma Gigas was a laughable foe compared to them. She didn't know everyone, but from Qrow's report to Ozpin and Ironwood -she'd loved his grimace at having to report to Ironwood-, they were skilled. Which meant Weiss had broken the law again, evaded prison and then failed at apprehending criminals, which meant she'd fought them without a license or permission from experienced Hunters.

It was a mess.

"Hey Ice Queen," a voice she knew all too well… and hated as well… spoke up in front of her.

She glared at Qrow, who was staring at her from the seat across her table at a small bar in Vale. The rest of the bar was basically empty, and the air was quiet, one of the reasons why she'd chosen it in the first place. There weren't many people around, as most of them were still in their offices.

Of course, that man had to be able to find her even there.

"What do you want, Qrow?"

"Can't I just drop by to say hello?" Her glare told him everything he needed to know. "Jeez, you never change, huh?" He sprawled himself on the chair in front of her with a tea in his hand. Following her line of sight, he chortled. "What? Booze is the best, but when that's not on the table, I like tea better than coffee. There's more choice of selection too."

Winter shook off her surprise at seeing him drink anything but alcohol, and levelled him with a glare anew. "What are you doing here, Qrow?"

"Jeez, one can't even come by to chat a little." Once again she didn't need words to convey a message. He sighed. "Fine. I'm on my way to a conversation I honestly look forward to and dread at the same time, and it's possibly the only conversation I don't want to be drunk for. So, I'm sobering up a little, and there's nothing like seeing you when I need to sober up."

Winter didn't know whether to take that as a compliment or an insult, regardless of how he'd used it. She chose the former, just because she didn't want to start an argument over something like that when she still had a lot on her mind. "Well, you've seen me – now you can go."

Qrow shrugged. "As I said, speaking with Tai may be my priority but it's not something I'll have fun doing. Plus, I wanted to talk with you."

"What about?"

"Weiss."

That got her attention much faster than his usual antics. "What about her?" she asked, her voice strained. "Are you here to gloat? To tell me how Atlasians aren't all that special?"

"No, I'd do that if I were drunk," he replied with a snort. "But I'm not drunk. I just figured you'd like to hear how things went from someone who was actually there before going to speak with your sister."

"How do-"

"I'm not an idiot, Ice Queen, I'd do the same if I were in your position – the only reason why I haven't gone to visit Yang yet is because I think Tai would be far more suited for the task," he cut her off with a glare of his own, nowhere near as cold as hers but just as sharp. "And if I were you, I'd learn as much as I can find on what happened before letting her tell me her side of the story."

He had a point.

Loathed as she did to admit it, but he had a point.

"What can you tell me that you didn't report to General Ironwood?" She took secret pleasure in watching him grimace at the mention of his report.

"Well, for starters I can tell you she didn't really want to fight, that last time. Oh, she tried to escape jailtime, partially to follow and protect Yang and partially to try and make things right before she could be imprisoned, but once I caught them she didn't seem like she wanted to put up a fight. Yang was the problem there." He glared at her to stop any kind of comment that sentence might've arisen. "So, I don't know… if you wanted to try and help her, maybe you could. Not enough to save her career, maybe, but you might clear her mind. Psychological help and all of that."

He wasn't wrong.

Weiss hadn't been prepared to deal with the normal world when she'd gone to Beacon. As long as she'd stayed in Beacon, she would've been fine, but out of the school there was a world she had no experience with. Finding that out the hard way probably left her confused, lost and conflicted, like a child who didn't know what they did wrong. Or well, who didn't know _why_ it was wrong. She did what she thought would help find those criminals, and she thought that as a Huntress, she could override the rules for the greater good. Most trainees thought that. Unfortunately, most trainees, unlike Weiss, weren't put in situations where that illusion was dangerous. She had.

"Is this everything you wanted to tell me?"

"No. But this isn't about Weiss any more." He drank some of his tea before putting it down with a sigh. "Look, I know you're a good person despite all your rules and codes and strictness. I need you to convince James not to take action against that group."

"Why would I do that?" retorted Winter, frowning at the man sitting across from her. "They are criminals, Qrow."

"I know, and normally I wouldn't care. But this is important on a larger scale than just simple crimes. I have to get involved to _prevent_ others from getting involved. I tried messing with them and I ended up with two teenagers in critical condition, and more bruises than skin, but it's not just that. If they were just strong, I'd just get a bunch of Hunters to help me out. But their reasons and their goals… Are the reason why I have to step in as a fourth player." The Hunter stared at her for a few seconds, as if evaluating her, before continuing. "Tell me, Winter, how do fairy tales come to life?"

Taken aback by the apparently weird question, she stuttered, "W-What-"

"Just humour me. Answer."

Frowning, the Specialist would've shrugged, hadn't she been so disciplined. "A fairy tale is a story invented to narrate it to children. So, it's born when someone makes it up."

"Meh, five outta ten," he criticized her explanation, waving a hand in the universal so-so sign. "According to Ozpin, an expert in the field, a fairytale can be born in two ways. One, is a made-up story meant to teach a lesson, usually caution to young children. After all, Little Red Riding Hood _did_ get eaten by the Beowolf alongside her grandmother, in the original version." Qrow cracked his neck and sighed in satisfaction. "The other is a true story told so many times the original version and events became lost to time, and only the very fantastic modern versions remain. Do you know the tale of the Four Maidens?"

"I must admit I am not familiar with that title," confessed the woman, still frowning at the man. "What does this-"

"I'd give you the long version, but I don't have enough patience. Long story short, there was an old man, a powerful wizard, who had long since lost the will to live. Four chicks, passing by, saw him and felt pity. So they helped him find the joy of living again. Four girls for four seasons. Each taught him to enjoy a season and the emotions that came with it. Anyway, the wizard, in thanks, gave those girls immense powers over the elements. This magic would then pass onto other girls, either the last eligible person they thought of or a random worthy girl. The personality didn't matter – which meant a cruel woman could get those powers too."

"Sounds stupid."

"It is. Now, what if I told you that wizard is Ozpin, he can reincarnate and those Maidens actually do exist?"

"I'd arrest you and forcefully bring you to a psychiatrist," Winter replied, preparing herself to do exactly that.

"Yeah, that's more or less what I told Ozpin when he told me, but more vulgarly and less arrest-y," laughed Qrow. "And I can prove it, though it's gonna be hard. Will you sit down and listen? No one's gonna overhear us, it's dead silent and no one cares to listen in anyway."

Only her discipline kept her from laughing at his face and walking away.

"I'll humour you indeed," she scoffed, sitting back down. "How could you possibly prove something so far-fetched?"

"Well, do you remember Cinder Fall, the chick I tried to catch after her companion ratted her out? Well, she's the current half Fall Maiden. She ambushed and almost killed Amber, the actual Fall Maiden, and stole half of her power. That's how she can throw around so much fire without tiring herself out. She has a power that's Amber's, not hers." Qrow slid a Scroll over to her, and she winced at the picture. The brown-skinned girl had a horrible scar on her face, and seemed to be in coma in some kind of machine. "Your dear Ironwood has had a machine built to transfer Amber's soul, to which the powers of the Maidens are attached, into another body. They plan to use it on a student to counter Cinder."

Winter's eyes flew wide open. "What?! They can't transfer Aura into another living being, it has never been tested before!"

"So it's been tested with inanimate objects?" asked Qrow.

Cursing herself for her slip, she met his gaze with a glare. "The creation of an android to test the machine. I will not say anything else."

"Tsk, and here I thought Ozpin was the one with secrets. He must be rubbing off on Jimmy," scoffed Qrow. "Whatever, not my business. Anyway, all the criminals in the group we tried to catch are either former employees or otherwise connected to Cinder, and they are fleeing from her. My guess is that they know about this too."

"I still don't believe you."

"People with silver eyes can petrify or kill Grimm with a glance, Ozpin reincarnates every time he dies, and there's a Queen of the Grimm called Salem that commands the Grimm," Qrow replied, earning himself a deadpan. "Yeah, don't believe me, I'll have to explain everything."

"I think I've heard enough."

"Then watch this and explain how Ruby did it." Qrow tapped away at his Scroll for a few seconds. "I extorted this from Hei Xiong. Security footage of a room."

Winter sat back down and watched in shock as the Arc boy turned into a nine feet tall Grimm monster, effortlessly hurling a terrified Torchwick against the wall before grabbing Qrow's niece. A flash of silver light later, the monster seemed to have turned to stone.

She frowned as the three other members of the group woke the girl up and then the monster broke free before returning human. Reaching over, Qrow stopped the recording and took back his Scroll. "Now, do you want me to tell you how I think that boy was capable of turning Grimm, and why my niece could stop him?"

Winter gritted her teeth before she looked up. "Qrow… my heart and mind both say yes… but my instincts aren't as sure. As selfish as this might sound, I cannot help you save humanity. It's a goal beyond my reach. And by the magnitude of what you've just mentioned, I don't think you're telling me this just to inform me. So why would you tell _me_ of all people?"

Qrow narrowed his eyes before bursting out laughing. "Exactly for that!" he guffawed before sobering up under her glare. "Ice Que… Winter, look, I'm gonna be honest. Save the world? I'm way too old to believe I can. I chose to tell you because I needed someone who would be suspicious, but willing to believe proof. Also someone who wouldn't be so easily fooled into 'saving the world'. You're one such someone." He smirked. "Besides, I'm not telling you this to save the world. I'm just telling you this because I might need you as an inside agent in the military."

"That is treason," Winter growled, hand flying to her sabre.

"Wrong, because you'd be reporting to an ally, not an enemy," he shrugged nonchalantly, drinking more of his tea. "Look, I don't trust Ozpin as far as I can throw him, when it comes to leaving third parties unchecked. Which means _I_ will be too busy sorting this mess out while keeping Oz's nose out of this, to actually do the same for James. He's a good leader, I'll admit it, but let's admit it – he tends to prefer solutions where his army is the main character. He would never leave that group alone. Soon, he'll start sending people after them, and either he'll piss the Arc kid off enough to actually cause a tragedy, or those people will go home in bodybags anyway. I need you to help me be the shock absorber between the hammer and the anvil. I'll try to get in contact with that group, but I make no promises. Point is, we should stay away. Your role would be to ensure James doesn't bite off more than he can chew. They are some of Vale's most dangerous fighters, it's too serious to let his ego act."

The Specialist gritted her teeth, but she couldn't deny he had a point. Maybe the Ace Cops would be able to subdue the group, but even then, they had shown no ill will toward anyone but those who fought them. Not to mention what Qrow was trying to convince her of. If that were to be true… then she couldn't fully trust her general. And if she couldn't trust him, then she'd need to take matters in her own hands.

Maybe not save the world. But maybe she could prevent unnecessary damage.

"Fine, I'll let you _try_ to convince me," she replied. "But on one condition. I want you to deliver a message to Jaune Arc, if you do get in contact with that group. Tell him I'm sorry. That I know it won't change anything and that he probably won't care, but I'm sorry."

Qrow frowned at her. "You never mentioned you knew him."

"It's _personal_."

" _Nothing_ is personal when it comes to the guy who almost bit your sister in half and almost bit off my niece's head, who is travelling with my _other_ niece. Nothing is personal when it could save lives. What's your connection with Jaune Arc." He narrowed his eyes. "I can only guess you two were close, given the message."

"We weren't."

" _Winter_."

"Fine!" Since when had _Qrow_ learned how to make her cave. Maybe it was the new, serious and professional side of him that made her feel like she should do as he said. After all, he _was_ a worldwide famous Hunter. "A few years ago, two or something, I went on a mission in the outskirts of Vale, outside the walls. I stayed in a small town called Orlén. There, I met him. He basically offered himself to do anything, from lawn mowing to dog sitting, for money. So I paid him a hefty sum to show me around. I admit, I did it because I felt pity and I just wanted to give him a reason to accept the money."

"That doesn't explain why you should be sorry," snorted Qrow.

"Let me finish! As I was saying, I paid him to show me around. For a week. I didn't care if that town wasn't big enough for it to be necessary, but he never objected. I appreciated his company too. He was different from the soldiers I was used to, respectful and polite, but not exactly good conversationalists. He was still kind of respectful, but he wasn't as stiff as a soldier when it came to talking." Winter sighed, regret written all over her face. "It was an accident. Thinking he'd be the responsible one of the two, I tried getting drunk for the first time. I ended up in bed with him."

Qrow spit out the tea he was drinking. "What?!" he choked out.

"I was drunk. I only realized later than he never stopped me because with how much I was paying him, he was sure I had hired him as… stress relief… and thought I had planned for it. I wasn't in control, but I wasn't out of my mind either. I had genuinely enjoyed that night…"

"Too many details, _way_ too many details," Qrow hurried to say, despite his reputation as a skirt chaser he didn't seem to be able to stomach imagining her having sex with a minor.

…

…

Okay, that was just as bad as it sounded in her mind.

"I wanted to apologize because it was wrong. Because I was intoxicated and-"

"Yeah, yeah, got drunk, banged a minor and now either you're sorry you can't bang him any more or you're sorry you didn't bang him enough earlier." A Glyph formed under the man. "But that's fine! I can try telling him that, but I make no promises, and if he gets pissed off, I'm not staying to tell him again!"

"I am not asking you to," Winter replied, dispelling the Glyph. "Now. How do you plan on convincing me about this 'Salem', these 'Maidens', and everything else?"

Qrow calmed himself down a bit, before he grinned. "I have no idea. But… I guess I'll wing it. Literally. Do you know my name isn't just for show?"

/-/

"As far-fetched as that sounds, it _would_ explain a lot," Torchwick admitted, creasing his hat with his fingers while he smoked his second cigar of the night. "For example how Cinder is so strong, both in raw power and in skill. And it would explain why they can control Grimm. As much as I want to believe Blondie's theory of a Semblance, I doubt anyone could make so _all_ Grimm obeyed to some people. It's just too unlikely. This… well, hadn't I seen a human Grimm hybrid before, I wouldn't have believed it, but with Blondie here…"

"Wait… does that mean Jaune could control Grimm too?" Ruby asked, incredulous.

"Never happened before," replied the boy while he began to serve dinner to everyone. "But it's not impossible. As far as we know, Grimm are entirely made of Grimm Essence, not DNA, which means there is no genetic difference between each kind – unless it's a magical difference. I absorb all Grimm Essence around, which means I'm a mix of several types of Grimm. Alpha species are known for controlling weaker Grimm. Maybe once I absorb enough Grimm Essence, I might be able to do the same?"

"That is a serious possibility," nodded Mercury. "That's how Salem does it, actually – she's the strongest Grimm and thus everything serves her. Which kind of helps us – it means it's possible to break that control. If Grimm Boy were to learn how to control Grimm, we might be able to stop Cinder and Watts from sending Grimm after us."

"And you're saying that Cinder is using the White Fang to attack Beacon, steal the rest of the powers, steal this 'Relic' and then go back to Salem, making the blame fall on the Faunus and maybe Atlas," Taurus continued. He didn't mind Atlas taking the blame, but the White Fang wasn't a kingdom, and that would mean Faunus would be feared but hated and hunted everywhere. "Which means she's going to do it with or without me. The White Fang is being blindly led to the path of self-destruction."

"And here I thought you'd actually like Cinder's plan," snorted Mercury, mocking as ever.

"Yes, I can appreciate the blow it would deal to humanity. But without me, the White Fang would crumble under the pressure of hatred, and a dismantling organization is an easy target for all the racists in the world." Taurus briefly glanced at Summer before scowling. "And… Blindly attacking isn't gonna work. They think us monsters… proving them right isn't the right way. While I do not wish to go back to the peaceful but ineffective ways, I am not willing to wage war to the entire world. Only to those who deserve it."

"Which means the SDC," Torchwick guessed, pointing at the Faunus's face, which was covered by a piece of cloth. "Am I right or am I spot on?"

"Neither. The Schnees are my biggest target, but saying they are the only racists in the world would be naive," replied the redhead man. "There are lots of other companies, companies we could easily take down to make an example of them. The SDC would be our masterpiece, but not our only objective."

"So, the question remains the same – knowing what we now know, what do we do?" Jaune spoke up. "Summer and Ruby have to go back home, but with everything that's happened, they wouldn't be safe there. Summer especially since she was already captured once. And I'm sure Watts saw Ruby using her silver eyes thing against me in the security footage, or will see it soon."

The two of them winced at the reminder that even if Summer had been saved, that nightmare was far from over.

"Adam wants to -understandably- go back to the White Fang. I don't think I need to say why he's in danger there." Taurus nodded, still scowling. "I want to check on my sisters, but after everything that's happened, they'll be expecting that, or they'll have locked them down to make it impossible. As long as they're safe, as long as they won't use them to draw me out, well… I don't really care what I do. Mercury, Roman and Neo are all on the run with nowhere to go and nothing to do."

"And where are you going with this?" Mercury drawled, already bored of it.

"We stick to the initial plan – we help Adam get his White Fang back, as long as he calls off the attack on Beacon." The three on the run deadpanned at him. "Think about it. If we stick together, we have a lot more chances of survival. We are a pretty strong team if we need to fight. And we have plenty of connections thanks to you. I can go berserk, and Ruby and Summer can stop me if I do. All of us can't just go their way without risking their lives. Ruby and Summer going home would be final – we can't bring them home and then slip away with them again. If we help Adam, after we do we can go from there – and we'll have the White Fang leader's support too."

Taurus reluctantly nodded. Even if he didn't like it, the White Fang would see them as heroes anyway, for saving their leader and helping him come back.

"Mercury, Neo, Roman. All of you don't stand a chance against Cinder on your own. You're running from her. But why run from a fight you _can_ win? If we stick together, we might just be strong enough…"

"To beat Cinder," completed Torchwick, eyes shining as he actually thought about the proposition. "And after she's dealt with, I have my crime empire back, my old life back, and everything else. Once Cinder and Watts are dealt with, we can all go separate ways. If what Merc-y said is right, this 'Salem' won't risk sending too many of her servants after us. Especially not if we killed two of them. She plays from the shadows."

"Which means we don't have to worry about some stupidly overpowered servant of hers to show up at our doorstep with a smile on their face and a sword in _our_ chest," Mercury nodded. "As much as I hate to say it, that's actually not a bad plan. We're in the shit anyway. We're in deep shit with Ozpin, and in deeper shit with Salem. Might as well make it worth it."

 _"So, I guess everyone's onboard with it?"_ Neo wrote on her Scroll. _"I am. Don't care. Whatever. I'm in."_

"I loathe having to join forces with humans, but what you said makes sense," grouched Taurus. "I accept… for now."

"Don't have anything better to do," shrugged Mercury. "Well, aside from dying by Cinder, and that's not really on my to-do list."

Ruby and Summer both nodded with determination. They really were mother and daughter.

"Well, I guess I'm outvoted anyway," Torchwick complained, but a small grin was on his face at the idea of, for once, screwing Cinder over instead of the other way around. "I'm in."

"Good," smiled Jaune. "Now eat before it gets cold. We'll talk details tomorrow."

 ** _So! The 'bad guys', aka main characters, are weighting their options. Meanwhile, we found out Winter chose a bad timing to get drunk. Though seriously, if you can't pay someone to keep you from getting drunk, then you can trust no one... And thus yeah, Winter did bang Jaune but she was drunk._**

 ** _Heck, that is literally a known and liked trope in FFNs. Drunken Marriages pop up from time to time. This time, there was no marriage, and the two parties didn't really get close afterwards... so yeah, cheery thoughts!_**

 ** _And finally! Qrow is tired of how Ozpin plays the game so he takes matters into his own hands. There's a third player already, so he'll be the fourth. This chessboard is getting crowded!_**

 ** _Until next time,_**

 ** _Khor Evik Vlakhavlakh_**

 ** _PS: I love to write villains. Except Cinder. Not found a way to write her I like yet._**


	26. New Developments

Her head spun as she tried to make sense in everything she'd just seen and heard.

Winter Schnee accepted the glass Qrow offered her, uncaring of whatever was in there. Even if it was alcohol, she would've drunk it nonetheless. As it turned out, it was indeed alcohol, and it burned her throat, making her cough as it went down.

"Easy with that stuff," Qrow snorted derisively from across the table of the café they were in, where the two of them had just returned after the man decided to show her 'everything'. "Don't go dying on me now that I've told you everything."

Winter glared at him as she got the cough under control. Despite not truly liking alcohol, she of course wasn't a stranger to hardcore drinks. It had just taken her by surprise. "Usually, you offer water, not alcohol, to military officers."

"Don't do don't care," shrugged the Hunter, chugging down his own glass and smacking his lips in satisfaction. "Ahh… love the way it burns, especially when shit is about to hit the fan and I'm standing right in front of it. So, any more questions?"

"Yes, how in the world did you manage to go on for twenty years knowing this?"

Qrow just held up his now halfway-empty glass.

"Point taken."

"Listen there, Ice Queen, it's not as bad as it sounds. And your role is gonna be even less important than mine," he tried to reassure her. "I just need you to keep Ironwood occupied. Nothing more, nothing less. And… okay, maybe I do have a favour to ask you…"

Winter took another sip from her drink, grimacing at its highly alcoholic flavour. "What favour?"

Qrow sighed and looked away, which was a first. It surprised her that the normally cheeky Hunter had just diverted his eyes as if embarrassed, ashamed, shy or a mix of all three. "Look, I… uhm…" He pursued his lips and sighed away. "Look, Yang's being condemned for the same things as your sister. I tried talking with her but it's like talking to a damn wall. Even worse now since she blames me, she says that if I hadn't held her back we could've won the fight before anyone else arrived and gotten Ruby back."

"I fail to see how this regards me in any way aside from also effecting my sister."

"The point is that Yang will never listen to me. She won't listen to reason until Ruby is rescued. She will never even entertain the idea that Ruby might be okay where she is. As rebellious and freedom-loving as she is, she can be a control freak when it comes to Ruby's life. Being abandoned by Raven, then losing Summer and suffering from Tai's breakdown… well, it left scars that won't ever heal." Qrow scowled down at his empty glass. "She'll never listen to me until Ruby is rescued. And once she is, she'll take that as a sign that she was right all along, and thus would not listen to me telling her otherwise."

"Sounds really full of herself," Winter mumbled before she could stop herself. "Like her uncle."

Qrow's red glare fixed itself on her and once again she was reminded just how big of a skill gap there was between the two. "Watch your tongue, Ice Queen," he threatened before all the anger seemingly left him, leaving him to just sigh sadly. "Unfortunately you're not completely wrong though… She _is_ quite arrogant. And I guess that somehow her mother's philosophy got to her as well – the strong lives, the weak dies. She thinks that as long as she's 'strong' she can do whatever she wants. She's never been malicious but…"

"She still breaks the rules."

"Rules and a lot of other stuff. You have no idea in what kind of trouble she can get. She's been giving me grey hair ever since she was seven and decided that going out alone, in the depth of a dark forest, was the best way to look for her wayward mother. Even worse she took Ruby with her. When I showed up, a Beowolf was mere feet away from biting her head off." He angrily chugged down his drink. "You'd think she'd learn her lesson, but noooo… she just stopped bringing Ruby along. She won't stop at anything to get what she really wants because she thinks that she's on the right side no matter what she does. I don't know… it's hard to explain, but-"

"No, I get it. I find it despicable, but I understand what you mean," nodded Winter, looking down at the table. "If I have to be honest, I'm afraid Weiss might be turning out the same…"

Qrow shook his head. "Nah, got some bits of the story outta her. She just felt like she had been framed and looked for a way out. She escaped because she thought she could fix her situation, not because she wanted to cause more problems. Which eventually isn't much better given what happened, but still… Even then, she only went with Yang at the club to pretend that their team was supportive or some other bullshit like that. Team leader delusions, I guess." He glared at his glass when he found out he'd just emptied it, and waved a waiter over for a refill. Once he got some more liquid death in his system, he continued. "Then she wanted to find out why a criminal knew you, and why her message shocked you so much. You were her perfect big sis, after all, and she couldn't believe you could have anything to do with a criminal, unless it was to arrest him. Then it all went downhill."

"It doesn't excuse her actions…" murmured Winter, looking downwards.

She sounded like she was hoping for him to disagree.

Unfortunately, he couldn't. He agreed with her wholeheartedly, for once. "No, it doesn't." He watched her wilt even further. "But… Maybe she can get a second chance." He hated seeing a hopeful light reappear in her eyes as she looked at him. That was one thing he always hated about his job – the way people looked at him, so full of expectations. He hated it because he knew he couldn't fulfil all expectations, and seeing that hope die was always nothing short of heartbreaking. If Weiss had turned out to be unredeemable for one reason or the other, or if Ozpin had refused… Winter might never actually recover from that. He hated that another person's life was in his hands at the moment. He wasn't responsible enough to handle his own life, why the hell would anyone put their own hopes in him? Regardless, he soldiered on. "I'll talk with Ozpin after my chat with Tai. I'll see if I can convince him to allow you to give Yang and Ice Queen Jr some bullshit like discipline lessons or whatever. Ozpin _really_ doesn't want a scandal such as this to happen, especially with Weiss fucking Schnee."

"And what would the favour you asked me be?"

"Well, actually teaching those lessons, I guess," shrugged the man, before getting up. "Well, I think I've postponed long enough. Gotta get to Tai and explain the situation to him. Do I have your support or not?"

"For the last time, Qrow, yes I will help you, now stop wasting my time."

He barked a short laugh. "No need to get pissed, Ice Queen. This is serious matter, I gotta be sure you're in. If Ozpin decides to accept my offer, you'll be the first to know."

His piece said, the walking talking nuisance finally left her alone to try and deal with all the info he'd just dumped on her, _on top_ of everything she'd already been dealing with due to her sister's actions.

 _'Qrow, you really have a way to worsen people's lives, don't you?'_ she thought glumly.

/-/

Adam Taurus never thought he'd ever willingly work with a human.

At first, when he was still young and unscarred by the horrors of the world, he hadn't minded their company at all. Once, he hadn't even considered humans and Faunus two different races. But then, when he was enslaved, put in the mines and branded like property, he saw the true face of humanity.

It would've been better had there been any human slaves in the mines. But instead, the SDC only forced Faunus to slave away in those highly-dangerous mines, to extract Dust none of them would've gotten the privilege of using anyway. The SDC was built on that slavery, and the SDC owned over 90% of the world's Dust trade.

Which meant that the vast majority of the Dust trade, the single substance that kept their whole civilization working, was all built on the spilt blood of innocent Faunus.

And no one ever moved a finger to help.

No one even spoke up against the SDC for that.

They protested about price increases or lack of stock, but never about the inhuman conditions the mine workers were kept in. No one gave a damn.

That was when Adam Taurus decided humanity simply wasn't worth saving.

He'd kill all of them if that meant saving Faunuskind, and he wouldn't lose a single wink of sleep over it.

After escaping the mines and returning to Menagerie to join the White Fang, he had quickly climbed the ranks due to his passion and hatred toward the humans. And he felt he was fully justified.

The results he got by leading the White Fang spoke for themselves. Humans refused to give Faunus equal rights even after actual _laws_ were made to 'ensure' equality. What a load of crap. And yet, fear seemed to work. Having experienced fear himself, he loathed the idea of turning the Faunus into monsters just so humans would stay off of them, but if that was it took, then he'd do it.

And do it he did, for years and years. Eventually he brought his branch to be even more violent, and that brought even better results. He realized quickly that _too much_ fear would eventually bring everyone joined forces against the White Fang, so he kept his actions violent and cruel but still overlookable enough.

All thorough those years, he'd never worked with a human. He vaguely remembered _defending_ a human child from a bunch of other humans, simply because he'd reminded him of how Faunus were treated, but that had been a long time ago and he had acted on his own, without any actual allegiance to that kid. Even when Cinder offered him that infernal deal of hers, he had refused, which had led to his capture and imprisonment.

And yet there he was, walking side by side with Mercury Black, an assassin who didn't bother to hold his tongue when it came to racist insults, and despite loathing the young man, he had actually _accepted_ to work together with him, four other humans and a human-Grimm hybrid of all things.

The world had really turned upside-down.

"How long will this take?" the quite annoying voice of Summer's kid, Ruby or whatever her name was, cut through the silence, and Taurus could see that at least Black shared his annoyance.

Unlike the Grimm hybrid, who just looked at Torchwick for the answer, and the thief himself, who almost seemed _amused_ by the question.

True, the group had been walking near the edge of the woods for quite some time, but yet again Forever Fall was quite the large forest – it would take them hours to get back to Vale by foot, and cutting through the forest would mean Beacon finding out, since the whole forest was filled with cameras. Even just walking on the edge was a big risk. While they could _easily_ wipe the floor with any team of students sent after them, the professors were another matter altogether. Perhaps they'd be able to take on one or two of them, but not the whole staff of Beacon.

So the only option was walking all the way back. Taurus hated the fact they couldn't take a Bullhead because Torchwick and Black were paranoid about Beacon finding out, but he could understand their worry. This didn't mean he had to like walking so much, _especially_ with Summer's kid yapping all the time.

"Depends on how long we walk every day," shrugged Torchwick, replying to the girl's complaint. "If we march all day, we should get there in a single day. But if you get tired or if we run into Grimm, it might take us two."

"Jaune can carry me if I get tired…"

"Then one day."

The girl sighed once again, kicking a pebble away. "This is so boring…"

"Sorry if being a criminal isn't all rainbows and sunshine," snorted Black, rolling his eyes in exasperation. "What were you expecting? A carnival, perhaps some games with friends with short breaks for snacks? Get real, Red."

"I don't know, I just thought you guys would speak more… but you're always silent…" By then, it seemed that Summer's kid had finally learned that no one cared enough to remember her name, or just plain preferred to use a nickname.

"Well, that's because talking is what friends do, and we're not friends." Torchwick cackled for a moment. "I think we can barely see ourselves as _allies_. You don't chat with those you don't trust."

"But come on, you can't work with some and risk your life alongside them without even trusting them!" protested the girl, kicking another pebble in frustration.

"Sure we can. Watch us," laughed the thief, uncaring of the ineffective glare she was giving him. "We're not teenagers. Well, most of us aren't. We're not around people to make friends."

The kid grumbled, but thankfully remained silent.

Taurus was grateful for that, at least. Not grateful to her, but to the Gods, since those didn't have races, or so he hoped.

A rustle in the forest tore him away from such thoughts as he narrowed his eyes at the crimson trees. Between the shadows and the sunlight peeking from the leaves, woods did usually give Grimm an easier time hiding, but to the trained eye, they could still be seen.

Sure enough, he spotted a bunch of Beowolves trying to sneak up on them. There were at least thirty or forty, with the Alpha currently nowhere in sight.

Beside him, he also saw Black tensing. Despite being trained as a Huntress, however, Summer didn't seem to notice. The long stay in that cell probably dulled her senses and instincts. She was probably going to be a huge liability in all fights they eventually got in. And she wasn't even good for keeping her kid silent, since the woman seemed still in shock about everything that had happened in the past day or two.

Not that he could blame her – he was just better at adjusting.

"Grimm incoming," Black drawled beside him.

The Grimm hybrid turned around. "How many?"

"Must be forty or so," replied the mercenary. "Medium pack overall. It's gonna be a piece of cake."

"You call that a medium pack?" asked Jaune, raising an eyebrow. "I didn't think Beowolves ever got too numerous. Hunters should be keeping the numbers down in Forever Fall."

"Not really, not for Beowolves," shrugged Black as he, the Grimm boy and Taurus himself stood up to be the first line of defence -and offence- against the pack. Summer's kid looked like she wanted to join them, but then glanced at Summer and decided to stay by her side. Obviously enough Torchwick remained behind them, while the bicoloured midget didn't even seem to have noticed. "They're too weak to be a threat anyway. I mean, civilian vs Beowolf, Beowolf usually wins. But even just a trainee can easily wipe the floor with them."

"Correction, they look more like sixty to me," Taurus spoke up, amending his earlier assessment as more dark shapes rushed in their direction. "I don't have a really powered-up Moonslice ready, so it's melee."

"Good old hack'n'slash, I guess," grinned Black. "You don't have to tell me twice."

It didn't take long for the Beowolves to arrive, nearly sixty of them just as he predicted, with the lumbering form of the Alpha standing behind the pack. And just as predicted, the Beowolves all attacked all together… and got slaughtered all together.

The first Beowolf to lung towards him didn't even die by his hand – Summer's kid apparently shot it with her rifle, and that was fine by him. He wasn't one to count his Grimm kills or yell at someone for 'kill stealing' or whatever bullshit some Hunters were infamous for.

The second Grimm wasn't as lucky. Wilt found a new sheathe in its skull before Summer's kid could even finish reloading.

The third, fourth and fifth attacked all together, but he merely swatted all their attacks to the side with a single swipe of his scabbard, Blush. He decapitated the one of the left with a quick swing before switching Blush in gun mode and firing two shots that killed the other two.

As Black said, Beowolves were rarely worth the cost of the Dust used to fight them.

The sixth Beowolf found itself bisected before it could even realize its kin had perished, and the two behind it found a quick death by the hands of his rifle. He barely even needed to put an effort in the eight monster, simply ducking over its first swing and cutting its head off before the other claw had a chance to move an inch. The tenth was similarly beheaded, the ninth having been taken care of by the kid with the rifle.

Boredom was more likely to kill him than any of these Grimm were, so Taurus decided to take a look at how the others were handling the abominations.

The mercenary was mowing through the monsters even faster than they could come at him, with an expression that puzzled the Faunus. He looked like he was enjoying the fight, but at the same time found it disappointing. He chalked it off to the guy being an adrenaline junkie and fight enthusiast without a challenge to really get his blood pumping. As long as that didn't cause problems for him, he didn't care.

He noted he used his arms the most, which was odd to say the least, given his weapons and his fighting style. However, as he watched the young man crack a Beowolf's skull with an Aura-infused punch before grabbing its arm and using the body as a club to slam into the next opponent, he guessed it was to make the fight a tad more challenging.

The thief, behind them, wasn't even taking part to the fight, a wise move in his opinion. The guy's weapon used a Dust crystal and while they had some, it never hurt to use them sparingly, especially since they had no idea if they would end up needing them later. What he couldn't understand was why he didn't step into battle to help them out a little, even if their opponents _were_ just Beowolves.

Perhaps he just didn't want to accidentally be a liability. Again, perhaps a wise move.

Summer was, as expected, gripping her weapons tightly, but not moving from the back. It was better that way – she still hadn't fully recovered from the close-to-ten years in the lab physically, least of all mentally, so staying out of a battle she wasn't needed in was a good choice, if slightly frustrating.

But maybe he'd be able to rub it in her face when the battle was over. He'd had to live with her sass for weeks in that lab, so now that she stopped sassing him for a second, maybe he'd finally be able to get her back at her for that.

Summer's kid was being semi-useless, but what else was new?

The Grimm boy was pretty lousy himself though. While he undoubtedly had strength and resiliance down pad, his form was horrible, his attacks sloppy and predictable, his guard open and overall his performance would've made a first year of Beacon retch in disgust. But at least he was taking care of the Beowolves going his way, mostly because he swung that sharp stick of his with enough strength to bisect a Beowolf no matter which way he hit it, so Taurus would lay off his case for the time being.

He returned his attention to the Grimm just in time to see the Alpha roaring and charging into the fray, ignoring the two bullets Summer's kid managed to put in its bone plates.

Taurus gripped Wilt's handle tighter as he slashed through the last of his Beowolves…

…but Black was faster, and landed a single drop-kick on the Alpha's head. A gunshot sound later and the Alpha's brains splattered all over the floor, its body slowly beginning to disintegrate as Black took care of the last stragglers.

Taurus frowned before casting a glare at the mercenary. Alright, maybe he found the art of kill stealing to be more annoying that he'd initially assumed. But the game was on.

/-/

Jaune Arc stared at the fire in a trance. They had had to stop for the night, both because Ruby was tired and because they encountered more Grimm than they thought. After those Beowolves, they had come across three small Deathstalkers and a Giant Nevermore, so they had wasted a lot of time fighting those, especially the armoured scorpions. Vale's lights shone not too far away, but as Torchwick had pointed out, entering the city in the middle of the night would've looked too suspicious.

Ruby was being taken care of by Roman and Neo. And by taking care of, he meant they were having her do some chores like taking out some rations or helping them set up camp, all the while teasing her to no end over every little thing Roman could think of. It was just his way of interacting with the girl, he supposed.

Adam and Mercury had finished their part and by now they were sharpening their sword and performing some katas, respectively.

And the final member of their group, Summer… was sitting right beside him, doing her best to sit as close as possible without hindering him as he cooked dinner.

 _'Seriously, am I the only guy around who actually knows how to cook?'_

He let that annoyed thought hover in his head for a second before banishing it. It really wasn't the time, and besides, he already knew the answer to that. So, since dinner was gonna be the exact same stew as the night before, and since it was gonna take a while, he decided to turn to Summer and start the conversation. If she wasn't going to, might've as well be him the one to begin.

"So. You're Ruby's mother, right?" Terrible terrible start aside, there wasn't much else he could talk about. He didn't wait to hear her reply -he knew the answer to that question too- before continuing. "How are you feeling?"

She opened her mouth to speak before closing it with an awkward expression of her face. After a few seconds, she decided to try again. "Fine… I guess?" she gave a light chuckle that died immediately afterwards when she noticed his confusion. "I-I mean… It's surely good to be out of that lab, it's just… so much to take in. I've been in there for ten years, and now I'm free, I'm just… well, still trying to process all of this, and hoping it's not just another dream."

Jaune shrugged. Admittedly she had a point. She'd been in there since forever, spent a good decade or so within those walls, it was a miracle she hadn't gone insane. "Well I can definitely say it's not a dream," he replied, rubbing his right ankle. He couldn't rub the foot itself so he'd go for the next best thing. "Walking and fighting all day long is not what I usually dream about."

Silence fell between the two for a few minutes more. Jaune stirred the fire as the other members of their ragtag group sat down with various groans of discomfort or fatigue, all facing the fire and the pot of bubbling stew on top of it. Heh, and Roman complained about him bringing a pot in his backpack. That ought to teach him.

"So… you are the White Glow?" Summer's voice distracted him from his slightly petty thoughts towards the thief, and he glanced at her with a confused expression at her choice of words. "I-I mean… your Semblance… it's what kept me safe… right?"

"Oh, that. Yeah. I call it Soulbond. It's not really fitting, it should be more like Aura Shield or Aura Transfer, but my sisters named it so it stuck." He blushed slightly, embarrassed by that, especially when Mercury and Roman both snorted to try and keep their laughter in check. Both failing.

"How… how does it work?"

Jaune shrugged, his blush dying down alongside the two's laughter, as everyone listened. Roman and Ruby already knew, but the others didn't. "I can Mark or Soulmark people. I can willingly transfer Aura to my Marks. Soulmarks _always_ get my Aura, it's something I can't cut off, hence the name – it's like we share a soul and thus an Aura pool. I can also concentrate to try and heal the targets but it's not really that effective, usually it just acts as some kind of painkiller."

Summer remained silent for a while, taking everything in, before she spoke up again. "I thought you'd have shorter hair."

Her cheeks reddened in embarrassment as soon as those words left her lips, but it was too late. Ruby and Jaune both stared at her, befuddled by the question, while Roman, Neo and Mercury roared with laughter. Adam just face-palmed.

"Sorry, I just didn't think you would have hair as long as that," Summer mumbled in apology, pointing to the blond locks of his that reached down to touch the ground as he sat.

Jaune blushed as well, shrinking. "Ah… yeah… I've been meaning to get a haircut but never found the time," he stammered, scratching the back of his head. "It's just that my sisters loved to braid my hair, so… I… kind of… kept it long?" he finished with a hopeful look.

Said hope was crushed when the aforementioned three renewed their laughter with even more vigour, Ruby pitching in as well. Jaune shot her a betrayed look that only made her laugh harder. Neo was a comical sight, clutching her sides without emitting a single sound.

Adam's hand dragged down his face as the man stared at the two of them with a look that screamed 'are you fucking kidding me?'.

Unfortunately, Jaune wasn't kidding. Nor Adam, nor anyone.

Summer at least tried to contain her laughter. "That's… exceptionally kind of you, Jaune…" she still smiled, unable to hide her amusement completely. "Sorry for earlier, it's just uncommon for men to have hair that long…"

Jaune waved her apology off before frowning. "Wait, how did you know I was a male? I could've been a girl for all you knew…"

Summer opened her mouth to speak before closing it, gaining a wide-eyed look he recognized from his sisters. They always did that whenever they did something wrong and didn't want him to know – and of course, as older brother, his suspiciousness increased tenfold every time he saw that look.

He also recognized another look from his sisters, the sly spy look one of them got whenever they were about to reveal what the other had done wrong. Usually to get revenge for something. However, that wasn't what surprised him -guilty and sly expressions were the norm among siblings-, but rather who was wearing that expression. It obviously wasn't Summer, and Ruby didn't strike him as a girl who would ever consider that. Strangely, it wasn't Roman, nor Mercury, either.

It was Adam.

"A-Adam, please-" Summer began hesitantly, having noticed that look as well.

"Payback for calling me Sadam," the bull Faunus grinned vindictively. He looked quite intimidating with the light of the fire illuminating him from below, a wicked grin on his face and the scar that turned his eye into a terrifying blood-red sea with a white pupil embedded within. And Summer looked appropriately scared, although maybe not because of his appearance. "I told you I'd get back at you, _Samperv_."

Jaune frowned. "Samperv?"

"The reason she thought you were a male is because whenever she thought I was asleep, which included times I wasn't, she would masturbate to her 'White Glow'." The look of absolute humiliation of Summer's face admittedly made him feel pity for her. "Without knowing she was fantasising about screwing a boy less than half her age."

Summer hid her face in her hands. Jaune scooted a bit farther from the woman while Ruby looked a mix between horrified, embarrassed to the extreme, and ready to hurl. Roman and Mercury were probably about to pass out from asphyxiation due to how loud they were laughing, and Neo had straight-out started to roll on the ground, beating her petite fists on the soil as she got tears of laughter in her eyes.

Jaune, a massive blush on his face as well, focused on the fire as the laughter slowly, _very slowly_ , died down. Summer didn't look at him and he didn't look at her.

He could guess it was understandable – she hadn't know he'd been just a boy and that 'White Glow' of hers had been literally the only positive thing in her life for close to a decade. It shouldn't have surprised him. Hell, most of his sisters had masturbated to him at least once, even though they all felt so ashamed afterwards, so he could guess it was natural.

Didn't make it any less embarrassing.

He also had half a mind to switch places with Adam just to put some more space between the two.

And then, a swirling red portal materialized into existence ten or so feet away from the group.

"What the-" Adam, Mercury and Neo all shot up in a second. Ruby, Roman and Jaune himself took a few seconds more, but it was Summer the one who took the longest. She was furrowing her brow as if desperately trying to recall something.

Her eyes widened when a woman stepped out of the portal.

Jaune narrowed his eyes when he saw her. Different outfit, different hairstyle and hair colour, otherwise the woman was a carbon copy of Ruby's sister, the bitch who had hurt his sisters just to try and get answers out of them.

Instead, this woman wore some kind of red segmented armour over her clothes – she had a samurai theme going on, apparently. Even if the stupidly large scabbard at her side didn't fit with the theme, the long katana-like sword she was wielding did. It also went well with the outfit, being red with a black handle.

"Who the hell are you?" Mercury growled aggressively.

The woman looked at him and smiled. "Well, I suppose I should introduce myself. I am-"

"Raven."

Everyone turned to look at Summer, who was staring at the woman as if she'd seen a ghost.

The now named Raven frowned for a second before her smile returned. "Yes, Raven. Raven Branwen, leader of the Branwen Tribe. I've done a bit of research on you, and I've been trying to find you for quite some time. Never thought I'd get to use this particular connection ever again, but I guess life has the annoying habit of being unpredictable."

"Alright, now that we know who you are, get the fuck out or we're gonna have some problems," Mercury continued, apparently unfazed by the fact Summer knew that chick.

Raven laughed without any joy in it. "Don't be so hasty. I came here with a proposition. You will be hunted down by Ozpin and his entire inner circle, am I right? So I came here with an offer. An offer to team up. You can hide amongst my tribe and help me during the raids. They will never suspect you've joined me."

"Uhh…" Jaune, Mercury, Adam and Roman exchanged glances. That was so much out of the blue none of them knew how to reply.

The woman chuckled at their response. "I prefer to offer first and give details once I have you interested," she revealed with a smirk. "It saves a lot of time. Forgive me for my bluntness."

Jaune was about to reply, when he felt a spike in negativity just beside him. Frowning, he turned to face the source of the sudden taste of rotten meat, and was shocked to find Summer glaring at Raven with as much hatred as she could muster. "Uh… Summer?" he called out, his previous thoughts about her long gone. "What is it?"

"It's her fault…" she replied through gritted teeth. Raven turned to look at her as if bored, but there was an edge in her eyes that wasn't there a second prior.

"So you remember," commented the black-haired beauty, sneering at the silver-eyed woman. "How odd that you don't even step in when your new 'friends' are beating up your 'family', and yet you remember me so clearly. Your priorities must really be skewed."

"Summer, what is her fault?" Adam asked sternly, casting his former cellmate a hard look.

"It's her fault I got captured," growled the woman, eyes shining as she reached for her weapons. "She's the one who sold me out and betrayed me."

 ** _Dun dun duuun!_**

 ** _I'm trying to cut back on the ANs, they're becoming annoying, I know._**

 ** _So... Raven sold out Summer. For the woman who abandoned her family and was ready to watch Mistral burn in its entirety just in the false hope that Salem would not go after her later, it's not really out of character. She'd just taken in the Spring Maiden when it happened, so she had to divert the attention to something else. Silver Eyes would do well._**

 ** _Now, why would she ask them to join her - for two reasons. One, she didn't think Summer would remember her after eight years of torture, both physical and psychological. Two, because they have proven they can easily enough handle her brother Qrow, who is on par with her (Maiden's powers nonwithstanding). She can't let such powerful fighters go so easily. And she doesn't know the whole truth, either, but she thinks Jaune might work with Salem due to his Grimm side - and if she could ally herself with Cinder, why would she not ally herself with Jaune?_**

 ** _Until next time,_**

 ** _Khor Evik Vlakhavlakh_**


End file.
